While San Francisco and Silicon Valley remain the biggest magnet for tech startups, many other countries are trying to attract entrepreneurs with preferential visa arrangements and subsidies. Successfully doing this will define the rich nations of the 21st Century.
Israel is the latest country to join the competition with the Israeli Ministry of Economy, the Ministry of Interior and the office of Chief Scientist will launch the program in the next few months which will allow entrepreneurs from around the world to come to the startup city of Tel Aviv for 24 months in order to develop innovative projects.
Entrepreneurs who wish to stay in Israel and open a startup company will be granted a specialist visa. Aryeh Deri, the nation’s Economic Minister said, “tThe Startup Visa will enable foreign entrepreneurs from around the world to develop new ideas in Israel, that will aid the development of the Israeli market”.
Israel’s Startup Visa programs joins Tel Aviv’s city-to-city-collaborations with Paris and Berlin, which allows entrepreneurs from the cities to receive a soft landing package including desks at co-working spaces, advice on visas, regulations and legal issues around starting up companies, as well as one-on-one mentoring assistance and access to the ecosystem in each town.
Just as Israel, France and Germany are opening up, it appears the UK government is tightening up its visa requirements much to the anger of their startup community.
The tech startup community is only a small part of the bigger economy, the challenges facing all these countries is the fight to win the global race for talent and young workers.
For almost all the developed world facing stagnant growth rates and ageing workforces, winning that race will define their prosperity for the rest of the 21st Century.