Relations between China and Israel

Economic Relations

The China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC) is tasked with digging the Carmel Tunnel. It will also be responsible for the civil engineering aspect of the Red Line of Tel Aviv’s light-rail project, which will connect Petah Tikvah in the east with Bat Yam in the south. ZPMC, the Chinese manufacturer of cranes and metal equipment, won the tender in July 2008 to supply seven bridge cranes to the Haifa port.

Zhou Hui, the commercial attache at China’s Embassy in Tel Aviv, confirms that his government encourages Chinese firms to come to Israel. He says that the amount of trade between the two countries has increased dramatically since diplomatic relations were established - from $50 million in 1992 to about $4.5 billion in 2007. The balance of trade remains highly uneven: China exports goods and services amounting to some $3.5 billion to Israel, whereas it imports only about $1 billion-worth from Israel.

The Carmel Tunnel will connect the Check Post junction, at the city’s northeastern entrance, with the fairgrounds area in the southwest. The tunnel, some 4.7 kilometers long, is scheduled to open in 2011, and will be the longest of its kind in Israel. The tender for the entire project was won by Carmelton, and it in turn chose the Chinese company as a subcontractor for the excavation work. The cost of digging the tunnel is estimated at $90 million. Ami Morag, the project’s administrative director, says some 550 Chinese are currently residing in Haifa while they work on the project, including about 50 managers and 500 workers (both engineers and laborers).

In Tel Aviv’s light-rail project, CCECC holds 25 percent of the shares in the consortium undertaking the work. Other members include the Lev Leviev’s Africa-Israel Investments and the German company Siemens, which will be in charge of the electro-mechanical work and will supply the trains. (The Chinese company will be in charge of the project’s civil engineering work.) The contract for the franchise, which was signed in May 2007, is for 32 years, including five years of construction and 27 years of operation.

Commercial attache Zhou notes that there are many more projects in the pipeline. One of them, for example, is a future tender for renovating existing rail lines. In addition, a huge Chinese home-appliance manufacturer is considering opening a research and development center in Israel, and representatives of the Chinese car manufacturer BYD visited Israel just this week in order to examine the possibility of cooperating in the field of electric vehicles and hybrids.