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,OOO 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."

]]> Wed, 08 FEB 2012 08:56:43 AEST Beijing (AFP) Feb 12, 2011 - A Chinese AIDS activist has been jailed for a year for criminal damage at the hospital where he believes he was infected as a child, his lawyer said Saturday.

Tian Xi, 24, was arrested in August 2010 in central China's Xincai district and accused of smashing up equipment in the hospital where he says he received transfusions of tainted blood.

"The verdict was announced yesterday by the Xincai County Court," Liang Xiaojun told AFP.

Tian rejected the sentence, "considering that the court has punished only him and not the hospital", Liang said. "He has therefore decided to appeal."

Tian has campaigned for compensation to be given to thousands of Chinese who contracted HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, through blood transfusions.

He was told shortly before his arrest that local authorities had demanded he be detained, according to China's Aizhixing Association for the Fight Against AIDS.

Tian had worked for the group, helping to uncover a scandal over the trafficking of blood in the 1990s in Henan Province, which led to more than 150,000 people becoming infected with HIV.

According to Chinese authorities, at least 740,000 people have AIDS in the country of 1.3 billion, although advocates for patients believe the real figure could be much higher.

AIDS has long had a heavy stigma attached to it in China, with many sufferers hiding their condition out of shame.

However, there have been recent signs that attitudes are changing.

The government has started talking more openly about HIV prevention and control in China, though people with HIV/AIDS still encounter huge discrimination in employment, education and healthcare.

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