The project was founded by President Peres with John Chambers, CEO of Cisco Systems worldwide. In only two years around 600 Arab engineers were placed in leading High-Tech companies

 President Obama told President Peres that Maan-Tech was an inspiring initiative and could be exported as a model to other countries

 The President of the State of Israel, President Shimon Peres, presented to President Barack Obama, during his visit to the Israel Museum Technology Exhibition, the Ma'an-Tech initiative, which incorporates outstanding Arab engineers into key roles in leading high-tech companies in Israel.

During the visit by President Obama to the Israel Museum which was dedicated to new technologies, the president requested that President Peres will present the Ma'an-Tech project, which President Peres had initiated with the CEO of Cisco Systems, John Chambers. President Obama had heard of the project before his arrival and asked to find out more about this unique project during his visit.

President Peres emphasized to President Obama that Israel is a 'Start-Up Nation' and so the incorporation of all sectors into leading high-tech companies was an Israeli national interest. President Peres informed President Obama that since the founding of the project approximately two years ago, around 600 outstanding engineers had been placed in companies including Intel, Microsoft, Google, HP and IBM. Those companies all contribute greatly to Israeli research and development.

President Peres said, "The project includes 30 companies from the high-tech sector who are recruiting top Arab engineers into their ranks out of a deep sense of mission and vision of introducing high-tech work into the Arab sector. Ma'an-Tech is a model that has been very successful in Israel – in my meetings with John Chambers we discussed the potential of expanding it to the rest of the world."

President Obama was very impressed by the Ma'an-Tech initiative and described it as inspirational and a model which could be exported outside of Israel. President Obama talked with the young engineers present and discussed their employment and the companies they work for.

Photo Credit: Koby Gideon/GPO