VIDEO – Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley was invited to open the trade at the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange.
Maryland is building itself as a stronghold for Israeli startup companies that are making the move to the United States, and that is why it was very important for him to establish a good rapport with the Israeli business community.
The TASE is Israel ’sonly stock exchange in which over 600 cooperation’s trade publicly, and therefore plays a very crucial role in the Israeli economy. So when the governor of Maryland was invited to open the trading day, he immediately said yes.
The delegation from Maryland also included several other elected officials like Baltimore City Councilwoman Sharon Green-Middleton.
"It’s my first time in Israel and I am just enjoying the whole country, or as much as I can see with this week," she said. "It’s just been amazing. The media doesn’t do it justice – it's an amazing country."
Tel Aviv Stock Exchange CEO Ester Levanon was very impressed by the efforts to solicit Israeli business to start shop in Maryland.
"There are 20 Israeli companies that have their headquarters in Maryland, which actually makes sense," she said. "ELTA is very big company that just opened their headquarters in Maryland.
"Israeli companies are always looking for the US market, so it makes sense for them to be located in those places in the States that have the accessibility and are easy to make business in."
Although the official agenda for Governor O’Malley’s visit is to strengthen the economic ties between the two states, as Martin O’Malley’s name keeps popping up for the Democratic ticket in 2016 ,political analysts say a good relationship with Israel will certainly look good on his resume.