Israel official optimistic for the Philippines

CEBU, Philippines - The Deputy Chief of Mission from the Embassy of Israel in Manila is optimistic that more investors will come to the Philippines because of the country's characteristics."

"Definitely. As I've said, because of the very unique characteristics of the Filipinos, I find it more and more investors will come here. The potential is huge, as we all know… Filipinos speak English," said Hadass Nisan in an interview at Hoops Dome in Lapu-Lapu City where an international robotics competition was held.

Nisan was at the venue to support two teams from Israel.

Nisan said Filipinos are kind and easy to work with. The Philippines has been Israel's trading partner in agriculture and technology.

She said there are Israeli I.T. companies based in Manila and it is not impossible for the country to pour investment in Cebu.

"There's no specific plan, but we'll try to consider," Nisan said.

Nisan said the robotics competition was a great opportunity for Israel to show how Israel is meeting the growing economy of the Philippines.

"Israel is known for its innovation entrepreneurship and working with children is our opportunity to train the young generation to make the next step of innovation and contribution to the world," she said.

Forty-nine Israeli delegates competed in the First Lego League Philippine Islands Invitational 2016 at the competition.

The other countries that sent delegations were Australia, Brazil, China, Indonesia, India, Italy, Japan, Pakistan, Spain, and South Korea.

Israel sent two teams to the competition, Blue Shark and Team Flash.

Blue shark was on its second time in the competition and has already earned several awards in the national and international level.

"It makes our team proud to be given this opportunity and show the world who we are," said Darya Solomon of Blue Shark, the overall champion in the competition.

Robotics isn't part of the education curriculum in Israel but country's delegates who spoke during the press conference told reports they engage in robotics during their vacant time and after class.  (FREEMAN)