Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi and Economy and Industry Minister Amir Peretz were scheduled to depart for a two-day working trip to Seoul, South Korea, on Sunday to sign a bilateral free trade agreement.

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The free trade deal between Israel and South Korea is expected to provide a major boost to bilateral trade, free from customs taxes.

In addition to the trade deal, representatives of both nations were scheduled to sign an agreement to double the funding for the Korea-Israel Industrial R&D Foundation, which supports innovative research and development projects conducted by Israeli and Korean commercial companies in cooperation.

Ashkenazi and Peretz were also slated to meet with South Korea's foreign and industry ministers as well as head of its national assembly and senior officials to discuss matters of geopolitics, the economy, and security.

South Korea is home to the 12^th-largest economy in the world. When the free trade with Israel is inked, it will become the first Asian nation to enter into an agreement of this kind with Israel, or any nation in the Middle East.

South Korea is already Israel's third-largest trading partner in Asia. When the agreement takes effect, over 95% of Israeli exports to South Korea will be exempt from customs taxes.

Ashkenazi said his visit to Seoul with Peretz marked the end of "several years of intensive work, both political and economic, by Israel to promote the free trade agreement that will strengthen Israel's economy and reduce the cost of living in Israel."

Peretz added that "South Korea is one of the world's leading economies and an important trade partner for Israel. The agreement will cancel the export duties, and I hope that Israeli citizens will benefit from less expensive cars, phones, and other equipment that arrives from South Korea."

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China will increase its annual research and development spending by more than 7% every year over the next five years, the government wrote on Friday in its work report from the Fourth Session of the 13th National People's Congress.

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The government will increase expenditure on basic research by 10.6% in 2021, the report added.

The ramp-up highlights the country's commitment to advancing in the tech sector, as the country increasingly clashes with the United States and other countries over technology policy.

In its five-year plan, China highlighted seven key areas related to technology it aims to boost: next-generation artificial intelligence, quantum information, brain science, semiconductors, genetic research and biotechnology, clinical medicine and health, and deep space, deep sea and polar exploration.

The government also said it would establish more national laboratories to research quantum information and artificial intelligence.

Other aims include encouraging companies to open up data in areas ranging from search, e-commerce to social media and support the third-party big data services.

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The NSF-BSF program was launched in 2013 with the purpose of encouraging collaboration between American and Israeli researchers. Through this program, researchers from both countries jointly submit proposals to the NSF-BSF, which reviews submissions and approves the winning proposals.

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The prestigious program distributes grants for a variety of fields, including exact sciences, engineering, computer science, natural and life sciences, earth and environmental sciences, economics, and psychology.

The NSF-BSF program enables American academics to collaborate with Israeli researchers, for whom this significantly increases research opportunities with US-based scientific establishments. At the same time, the program contributes to improving the reputation of science in Israel and reinforcing internationalization in the higher education system.

Israel is among the few countries to have joint research programs with the NSF.

"The expansion of the NSF-BSF program is an achievement for the Israeli higher education system, said Professor Yaffa Zilbershats, chairman of the CHE's Planning and Budgeting Committee (PBC) said.

"The United States is the world's research superpower and its willingness, through the NSF, to significantly expand American investment in, and collaboration with, Israeli researchers and institutions demonstrates the strength and quality of Israeli research. The PBC has set the advancement of internationalization as a central goal in its multiyear plan and allocates hundreds of millions of shekels per year to strengthen scientific ties with the United States, Europe, and Asia."

In addition to the increased funding for NSF-BSF and as part of efforts to increase the scope of support of collaborations between Israeli researchers and institutions and American researchers, the PBC approved two additional initiatives: The first will see an increase in the number of postdoctoral scholarships for individuals studying in Israel, with an emphasis on outstanding postdoctoral students from leading universities in the United States and Canada.

The program, in collaboration with the Zuckerman Institute, will enable admission of dozens of outstanding postdoctoral students in STEM subjects over the next several years at all Israeli research universities. The amount of the scholarship for each postdoctoral student is $100,000 over two years, with the possibility of extending the scholarship for an additional two years. The total budget will be approximately $11 million over the course of four years – distributed equally between the PBC and the Zuckerman Institute.

The second plan will see the CHE increase its support of postdoctoral scholarships granted to Israeli and American scientists in the framework of the Fulbright Israel United States-Israel Education Fund (USIEF) from $20,000 a year to $35,000 a year for American postdoctoral students studying in Israel, and from $37,500 a year for Israeli postdoctoral students studying in the United States to $47,500.

The Council for Higher Education is the official authority for higher education in Israel, determining policy for universities and colleges and introduces programs to improve the overall quality of education in Israel. It supports innovation and excellence in teaching and works to make higher education accessible to the entire Israeli population while strengthening the internationalization of the higher education system.

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The 20-week program, called Ignite, will offer business and technical support to up to 15 startups, the California-based company said, adding it would not take equity stakes in the start-ups now, but might do so eventually.

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Intel is one of the biggest employers and exporters in Israel, where many of its new technologies are developed, and this year said it was investing 40 billion shekels ($11 billion) to expand its manufacturing operations there.

"Israel has the deep skill base in AI, autonomous systems and the underlying technologies critical to these inflections that make it a natural choice to launch our Ignite program," said CEO Bob Swan.

Intel paid $15.3 billion to buy Israeli autonomous-vehicle technology company Mobileye two years ago.

"I have absolutely no regrets with the acquisition of Mobileye," Swan told reporters in Tel Aviv, adding that since its purchase Mobileye had doubled its penetration into the high-growth industry of autonomous driving vehicles.

Last month, the US Commerce Department added Huawei Technologies Co. to its so-called "Entity List" - a move that bans the telecom giant from buying parts and components from US companies without US government approval.

China is an important market for Intel and Huawei is a large customer.

"What we intend to do is be very focused on serving customers around the world but at the same time abide by the rules. We aren't shipping anything that's specified on the entity list," Swan said.

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