前不久，国家主席习近平同以色列总统赫尔佐格通话时指出，中以经济优势互补，完全能够进行互利共赢的合作。双方合作打造了中以常州创新园等标志性项目，创新成为两国关系的亮点和助推器。

“中以常州创新园是首个由中以两国政府签约共建的创新示范园区，常州在中以创新合作中扮演着非常重要的作用。多年来，中以常州创新园以非常活跃地姿态吸引着以色列企业入驻。”以色列驻沪总领事爱德华（Edward Shapira）在12月16日接受新华日报记者专访时表示，以色列与江苏省、常州市的合作层次之高，我们深感欣喜。2022年是中以两国建交30周年，这是进一步深化两国经济友好关系的好时机。

以下为新华日报记者与爱德华先生的访谈实录——

新华日报：您如何评价以色列与常州在创新方面的合作？

爱德华：First of all, we are proud that our economic dialogue was defined  by our leaders as a comprehensive innovation partnership.

首先，两国领导人的通话，为持续推动全面伙伴关系进一步发展指明了方向，我倍感自豪。

Changzhou is playing very important role in our cooperation in innovation because it was the first city with which we established the innovation park.

中以常州创新园是首个由中以两国政府签约共建的创新示范园区，常州在中以创新合作中扮演着非常重要的作用。

We signed the agreement in 2014. By the way，it was signed by our current Prime Minister Naftali Bennett that time he was former minister of economy. The park is very active in order to attract Israeli companies and technologies. 

中以常州创新园合作协议由现任总理纳夫塔利•贝内特在2014年担任经济部长期间签署，（多年来）中以常州创新园以非常活跃地姿态吸引着以色列企业入驻。

Although we are facing difficulties due to the pandemic, we succeeded to bring both sides to work together and the cooperation is not limited only to commercial, but also academic field with participation of Israeli governmental and NGO organizations. 

尽管新冠疫情期间我们还面临许多困难，但园区依然成功与以色列公司开展了丰富的活动，不仅局限于在经贸领域，更扩展到学术领域，同以色列的更多组织进行了合作。

We are very pleased that Changzhou has a representative office in Israel, which is promoting cooperation between Israeli companies and CICP.

同时，我们很高兴地看到，常州在以色列的离岸创新中心也不断推进以色列企业与中以常州创新园开展合作。

We have many other projects in pipeline with Changzhou. The purpose of my visit here is to see how we can implement our plans in the next year, which is a very special year when we celebrate 30th anniversary of the establishment of our diplomatic relations.

明年是中以两国建交30周年，我们还有许多其他项目正在进行中，此次访问的目的，就是为了考察如何更好地落实明年的规划。

To summarize, we are very pleased and very happy with the level of cooperation that we have with Jiangsu province and with the city of Changzhou. We hope that this cooperation will be developed and implemented in new areas during the next year.

总而言之，以色列在江苏省，与常州市的合作层次之高，我们深感欣喜。祝愿明年能继续推动更高水准的双边合作，在新的领域取得成效和发展。

新华日报：您如何评价中以常州创新园近几年在推进中以合作上的努力，对园区还有怎样的期待？

爱德华：CICP was the first innovation park that we established here in the Jiangsu province. The park is very active and always comes with new ideas. As I said, the park has opened their  office in Israel, which  is actively promoting the cooperation between Chinese and Israeli companies. We are now trying to develop academic cooperation, which hopefully will produce additional projects for this park. During this challenging time we promote business-to-business cooperation mainly through online conferences.

中以常州创新园是以色列在江苏省开展合作建设的首个创新园区，如我所说，与位于以色列的江苏创新中心形成合力，一起推动中以企业间的合作。我们也正在努力发展学术合作，期待为这个园区带来更多的项目。在具有挑战的时期，我们也正通过线上的形式促进商业合作。

I have to emphasize again that we are very satisfied with the level of devotion and professionalism showed by our partners in the Changzhou.

我必须再次强调，我们非常高兴且满意地看到，常州作为合作伙伴，所秉持的敬业精神和专业水平。

Their efforts are not limited to provide only the best possible infrastructure in the park, but also related to the creation of suitable ecosystem in order to make the CICP a convenient and comfortable platform for Israeli and Chinese here in Changzhou.

We are very optimistic about the future cooperation in the next coming year.

为了让以色列公司在常州感到更方便更舒适，园区不仅在基础设施建设上，还营造了可持续的创新生态系统。所以，我们对来年合作感到非常乐观，未来一片光明。

新华日报：

结合两地实际产业，您认为还能在那些领域开展更深层次的合作？

爱德华：Israel is considered to be kind of a supermarket of different technologies. Some of them might be very interesting and profitable and can provide good business opportunities for both sides.

以色列可被认为是不同技术的超级市场，其中许多非常有趣的技术为两国开展商业合作提供更好的机会。

Then automotive technologies. Although we do not produce any cars,  we have many innovative and advanced startups for car industry, which are relevant to Chinese market. China is a worldwide provider of electric cars. Around 2030 in Israel, 50% of our fleet vehicles will be electric cars.  So definitely this is a very natural field of cooperation.

在汽车技术领域，虽然我们不生产汽车，但我们有很多为汽车企业提供创新和先进的解决方案的初创公司，这与中国息息相关，因为中国是世界上最大的电力汽车供应商。（预计到）2030年左右，电力汽车将占到以色列汽车的50%，所以这将是中以间自然而然的合作领域。

We intend to boost our cooperation in innovation in many levels -academic, commercial, G-to-G, B-to-B, all are welcomed. 

我们计划通过不同的方向来促进两地深入创新，从学术、商业、政府间、企业间等方面展开，一切都是可能的。

I am pleased to watch the improvements made in the park during the last year. This is an outstanding example when you have a very devoted professional team and they are pushing all of us forward. We can do wonderful things together in this city and this upgraded park with state-of-art facilities. We are very happy to work together with such partners.

我对常州的奉献精神感到非常高兴，在常州，在中以常州创新园这样同时拥有艺术与先进的设施地方，与他们一起推动合作，中以合作将结出更加丰硕的果实。

新华日报：您对2022年——中以建交30 周年，中以合作发展有何愿景？

爱德华：It's an important year for China and Israel to celebrate the great achievements for the past 30-year cooperation.

对中国和以色列来说，这是重要的一年。在这30年的发展中，两国在许多领域都取得了出色的成绩。

The 30-year anniversary is a good opportunity to boost our economic relation. I hope that next year, we will be able to sign a Free Trade agreement between China and Israel, which will additionally promote our economic relation.

30周年是进一步深化两国经济友好关系的好时机。明年，我期待着中以自由贸易协定的签署，来进一步推动两国经济关系深化。

常州市委、市政府将牢记总书记殷殷嘱托，以开放促合作，以创新谋发展，持续加强前沿技术引进转化，强化创新策源功能，在平台建设、人才引育、要素集聚等方面探索常州路径，争当中国以色列创新合作领航者。