Look at tiny Israel population the chosen people…God may not bless Israel with big mega oil reserves but gifted with genius brain great human capital reserves…
Between Oil Reserves and Human Capital reserves in long run it’s very clear who will survive once the oil dried up….
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Israeli innovators build new ‘Silicon Valley’
By Katia Dolmadjian, AFP News, Tue, Jun 28, 2011
With a concentration of start-ups just behind that of Silicon Valley and an impressive pool of engineers, Israel is becoming the new standard for high-tech, with a unique business model.
Internet-related activities contributed 9 billion euros (12.6 billion dollars) to the Israeli economy in 2009, representing 6.5 percent of GDP, according to a report from management consultancy McKinsey.
The sector is worth more than the construction industry (5.4 percent of GDP) and almost as much as health (6.8 percent).
The web economy has also created a total of 120,000 jobs, accounting for 4 percent of the country’s workforce, McKinsey says.
From Microsoft to Intel through Google, IBM and Philips, almost all the giants of the Internet and technology have set up important research and development centres in Israel, spawning products and systems used worldwide.
“Israel is the country with the most engineers in its population, and it ranks second behind the United States in the number of companies listed on Nasdaq,” said David Kadouch, product manager at Google Israel, which opened its R&D operation in 2007 and currently has 200 employees.
“It’s really a second Silicon Valley. Besides the multinationals, all the major American investment funds are present,” he said.
“The scientific community is very active, there is plenty of manpower and especially an entrepreneurial culture. There is a huge ecosystem around high tech, and what is fundamental is that here we think global.”
Some 500 start-ups are created every year in the country of 7.7 million people, which grew by 4.7 percent last year according to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development against an average of 2.8 for its member countries.
The OECD forecast for Israel in 2011 is 5.4 percent.
Israel’s higher education institutions, particularly the Technion, the prestigious technological university in the northern city of Haifa, must take a large share of the credit for this creativity.
“All the groups have set up subsidiaries here because of the proximity of the talents of the Technion university where there are (people with) excellent CVs,” said Yoel Maarek, president of Yahoo Research Israel, which employs about 50 people.
“I myself have studied at the school of bridge engineering in France but when IBM hired me it was thanks to my degree from the Technion,” he said.
The huge Technion campus comprising 19 schools for 12,000 students trained 70 percent of the country’s current engineers and 80 percent of the executives of Israeli companies listed on Nasdaq.
“Many students… are already snapped up by large foreign companies,” said Ilan Marek, professor of chemistry at the Technion.
“In the early 2000s, we broke down the barriers between the four classical branches of science, allowing the students to move between fields and have a more global vision,” he said.
“The key to the development of a country is to train leaders in science.”
Saul Singer, co-author with Dan Senor of the book “Start-up Nation: The Story of Israel’s Economic Miracle,” believes the often maverick nature of many Israelis also plays a role.
“The lack of respect for authority is typical in Israel, it’s a cultural thing, in line with start-up creating. There is no authority, it is very informal. There are two big factors, drive and determination, and taking risks. We have a very exciting business model,” he said.
“In Israel there is a constant struggle with all kinds of adversity,” he added. “These adversities are a source of creation and energy. Israel is a country with a purpose, a mission.”
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Petronas told US envoys Malaysia oil drying up
Malaysian Insider June 20, 2011
The Petronas executive said the oil firm was forced to comply with the government’s policies.
KUALA LUMPUR, June 20 — Malaysia’s limited oil and gas reserves are running dry, spelling trouble for the government as it relies on national oil company Petronas for nearly half its revenue, said a leaked United States diplomatic cable.
According to the cable released by whistleblower website WikiLeaks, a Petronas board member admitted to US embassy officers here in 2008 that the company “feels tremendous pressure to grow its business in order to maintain Malaysia’s political status quo.”
“Petronas wants to stay insulated from politics but must comply with GOM (the government of Malaysia) policy,” Datuk Mohd Azhar Osman Khairuddin, now a vice president at Petronas, was quoted as saying in the cable published in full by the Malaysia Today news portal today.
“Azhar told us that Malaysian O&G reserves are not large and are running out soon. (Note: Conoco Philips Malaysia confirmed that without new discoveries, Malaysian oil production will decline at approximately 10 per cent per year, from 550,000 bpd in 2008 to roughly 490,000 bpd in 2009 and 450,000 bpd in 2010.)
“Azhar noted that revenues from Petronas accounted for 45 per cent of the GOM budget last year and stated that the GOM is over-reliant on Petronas to fund its operations,” said the document classified by the embassy’s then economic counsellor, Matt Matthews.
Petronas made a pre-tax profit of RM90.5 billion for the year ending March 31, 2011. On top of taxes, Petronas has been paying the government a dividend of RM30 billion since 2009, up from RM24 billion in 2008, RM20 billion in 2007, RM13 billion in 2006 and just RM9.1 billion in 2005.
However, a new proposal expected to take effect in 2013 will see dividends paid by the state-owned oil company fixed at 30 per cent of net profit.
According to the cable, Azhar said that Petronas wanted to invest in productive O&G assets to “promote future profitability rather than be spent now on domestic programmes for political gain.”
“He described Petronas as a stabilising force in Malaysia and in Asean regionally and his desire that the USG recognise the important role Petronas plays in maintaining political stability in the region,” the report added.
According to the leaked document, embassy officials had met Malaysian oil and gas firms due to concerns over business activities in Iran but Petronas said it had no active investments in the Islamic republic.
However, Petronas said in April last year that it sold spot volumes of gasoline from third party traders and suppliers to customers in Iran.
The cable also quoted a foreign ministry official as saying that “Malaysian firms go to Iran with suitcases of money to purchase oil and gas concessions from the Iranians. He said that they bring too much cash to count the money, so they weigh it to determine if the amount is correct.”
It named principal assistant secretary and America desk officer Muhammad Radzi Jamaludin as saying that two private companies, SKS Ventures and Amona, claimed they had no financing sources for their projects in Iran.
However, Radzi “did not offer why Malaysian firms would purchase such concessions for projects they were unable to finance.”