America Online put Virginia on the map.

Now, with the election of Governor Mark R. Warner, a former entrepreneur and venture capitalist, Virginia is positioning itself to be one of the nation's premier locations for high-tech and emerging growth markets. The state's proximity to the nation's center of power, Washington D.C., as well as to major East Coast financial centers, including New York and Boston, gives it a unique advantage over most other locales as an attractive place for Israeli companies to establish their businesses.

"With our highly skilled workforce, a favorable tax environment and a great concentration of potential customers and partners, Virginia is emerging as a location of choice for international companies seeking to do business here in the U.S.," said Warner in a recent interview with the Virginia-Israel Alliance newsletter.  "Its closeness to D.C. and some of the top U.S. technology hubs in telecom, Internet and biotech, as well as its state-of-the-art manufacturing base, is making our state especially attractive."

Virginia also provides Israeli companies an added benefit by operating next door to many large multinational institutions like The World Bank, The International Monetary Fund and International Financial Corp., all of whom are great allies for promoting global commerce.

The event that put Virginia on the map for most Israelis was America Online, which bought Israeli-based Mirabilis two years ago, the company that developed the immensely popular instant messaging service ICQ. Since then, many Israeli companies have established operations in Virginia, especially in the Dulles Corridor, a region in Northern Virginia next to Washington, D.C. Northern Virginia is fast becoming a major U.S. growth center, attracting both well-established Israeli companies like Starband and startups that are looking to begin marketing their products in this area. Northern Virginia is also home to some of the largest U.S. defense contractors such as CACI International and DynCorp.

"Virginia has much to offer and I am committed to building relations between Israel and our Commonwealth," said Warner.  "Israel can play a tremendous role in the continued growth and success of our state economy."