Industry, Trade and Labor Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer will sign a cooperation agreement on research & development with the city of New York.

The agreement between Israel and city of New York, aimed at advancing R&D York cooperation projects between Israeli and New York companies, is expected to be signed with New York's David Paterson during Ben-Eliezer's visit to the US starting this week.

During the visit to South America and the US East Coast, Ben- Eliezer will be meeting with leading US companies in the areas of communications, water, energy, etc. in an effort to forge cooperation. Among other companies Ben-Eliezer will meet with representatives of AT&T Mobile, General Electric, Coca Cola Company, Merck & Co.

As part of the visit, Ben-Eliezer will also be heading a business delegation of 14 Israeli companies in the areas of water and energy which are taking part at a three- day cleantech conference organized by the Industry, Trade and Labor Ministry and the Israel Export Institute will include meetings with local companies in New York Philadelphia and New Jersey. The conference day in New York will take place at the World Trade Center under the auspices of the New York State Power Authority.

The 14 Israeli companies participating in the three-day conference are:

Solel Solar Systems Ltd , Leviathan Energy, Metrolight Light Forward , DuCool Ltd., Aquagrofund, VARIABLE WIND SOLUTIONS LTD., Power Electronics Systems (2006) Ltd; PowerSines Ltd, Pythagoras-Solar, Solaris synergy , TransBiodiesel, Ltd, Aora-solar, Arrow Operations and Technologies, Arrow Ecology and Engineering Overseas (1999) Ltd, , Cequesta Water.

In the first six months of the year Israeli exports to the US dropped by 12.5% compared with the same period last year and amounted to $7.4 billion. During the same period US imports to Israel fell by 22.05% compared with the first half of last year and amounted to $4.6 billion.