(The Center Square) – Florida is continuing to expand its aerospace partnerships with other countries as part of a four-country trade mission trip. After already announcing partnerships with Japanese and South Korean companies, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Thursday announced another new partnership with an Israeli company to provide next generation flight training.
He also announced a new healthcare technology partnership.
Fort Lauderdale-based Avenger Flight Group, LLC, and EL AL Israel Airlines have entered into an agreement to build a next-generation flight-training center in Israel. El AL will train its 737 and 787 pilots at the center using state-of-the-art simulators provided by AFG. EL AL and AFG will jointly operate the center and offer training to other airline pilots there.
The agreement was “another win for Florida and Israel,” DeSantis said. “This partnership will create new high-paying jobs for Floridians and Israelis, further solidify Florida’s partnership with Israel, and create future opportunities for collaboration in the aviation sector.”
Florida’s economic development agency, Enterprise Florida, Inc., also signed a joint declaration with the Israeli counterpart, the Israel Innovation Authority and the Israel-America Chamber of Commerce (AmCham Israel). The agreement is designed to promote greater cooperation, strategic partnerships, and trade and investment between Israel and Florida, with an emphasis on healthcare technology.
The partnership hopes to expand economic and business collaboration to create one or more health-tech hubs for Israeli health-tech companies, joint research and development programs for Florida and Israeli companies in health-tech, and joint research projects for academic institutions, according to the governor’s office.
Laura DiBella, Florida Secretary of Commerce and president & CEO of Enterprise Florida, who signed the declaration, said, “Life sciences is one of Florida’s fastest-growing targeted industries,” and the declaration would “propel us forward as we strive to bring the most revolutionary healthcare technology to the Sunshine State.”
Dror Bin, CEO, Israel Innovation Authority, said partnerships among Israeli innovative technological companies and Florida-based companies “will enable the creation of cutting-edge solutions that will prove instrumental in laying the groundwork for the future of healthcare and providing superior personalized medical care.”
He said, without explaining which drug or population he was referring to, that “the ability to develop a drug suitable for a particular population, to ensure its safety, and to prove its efficacy with precision, is paving the way for faster, smarter, and cost-effective medical care. Regulators across the globe are bracing for this trend and are becoming open to new models for testing drugs that correspond with the new era of personalized medicine.”
The last stop in the four-country trade mission trip is the U.K.
This article First appeared in the center square