TEL-AVIV

Tel Aviv Yafo is the second-largest city in Israel. According to the UN World Urbanization Prospects, in 2020 the land occupying 52 square kilometers provides a home to 460,613 people. Settled on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline this city is home to numerous splendid Bauhaus International style buildings. Tel Aviv lies 60km north-west of the capital city, Jerusalem and is popular in the whole world because of its impeccable works of architecture. The city is also known as the financial capital of the country. Tel Aviv’s popularity is marked by its exemplary technological advancement. Silicon Wadi is the technological heartland of the city.

• The 2011 census reported that Tel Aviv’s population is 405000 people 
• In December 2018 the city’s population was calculated as 460,613 residents including 199.7 thousand households incorporating an average of 2-2 persons per household.
• In 2018 Tel Aviv became the country’s employment center as 11% of the total employed people of Israel worked in the city.
• Recently, the population showed diversity regarding the age groups, with 14.6% of the total population being 65 years and above, 22.2% of the total reporting the age below 20, 18.5 % people within the age bracket of 20 and 29, 16.2% people lying between the ages of 30 and 44, and 19.1 % of the population with the age between 45 to 59.
• Over these years of progress Tel Aviv- Yafo has won many global titles, including – ‘World’s Smartest City’ by Smart City Expo World Congress, ‘Most Innovative city in the world’ awarded by Wired, ‘Destination of the Year’ by Forbes, ‘ Best places to do businesses in the world’ honored by CNN Money and many more honorable mentions.
• Because of the exemplary Bauhaus international architecture works of the city, Tel Aviv Yafo was declared UNESCO World Heritage site in2003.

In 1950 Tel Aviv and Yafo were merged into a single municipality. Now, the city of Tel Aviv- Yafo is taken care of by 70 local authorities. Every authority is supervised by a mayor and his council who are elected for a term of 5 years. For holding the voting rights in Tel Aviv municipal elections an Israeli citizen should be above the age of 18 and must have resided in the city for at least one year. The municipality supervises numerous domains, including public infrastructure, tourism, social services, urban planning, community programs, and miscellaneous local affairs.

Approximately two-fifth of Israel’s banking and finance industry is located in Tel Aviv Yafo, making it the financial capital of the country. Another factor responsible for this title is the concentration of hi-tech industries in the Silicon Wadi region which lies just behind the Silicon Valley in the line of high-tech. As the city witnessed technological progress it recorded a 110% increase in its income spurring from the year 1998 to 2018. The Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, research and development centers and corporate offices fuel the economy of this city as well as the country.

Tel Aviv is known as the start-up capital of the whole world as it records the highest start-ups per capita. The business environment built in the city also supports research and development centers as more than 30 variegated grants have been offered by the Israeli government for R&D activities. The city has built an international business environment by providing land to leading world tech companies such as Amazon, Google, eBay, Alibaba, Facebook, and many more reputed names. In the business world, English is used as a common language to encourage cooperation and coordination. 

Tel Aviv Yafo serves as a major transportation center for the country. the city consists of 840 km of roads featuring 420 intersections with traffic lights accompanied by 130 km long bicycle routes. Like the rest of Israel public transportation is popular in Tel Aviv. One could travel by local or intercity taxis known as sherut or he could approach the suburban railway lines. As a member of the local governments for sustainability, the city aims at reducing air pollution and nurturing the environment. The municipality has developed an irrigation system for the gardening sites in the city. Almost 72 % of the gardens are being irrigated today. The city has developed an eco-friendly infrastructure that promotes a high quality of living. 

Since 1990, when the city was officially established as Tel Aviv, it has been making record-breaking progress in the field of technology. As the hub of all the major international high-tech companies, Tel Aviv- Yafo aims to continue these advancements and develop a technology-friendly environment. The Tel Aviv municipality claims all the plans leading to the establishment of a smart city are to ensure better urban administration and resident participation. The greatest technological achievement of this city is the Digi-Tel app. It is an online platform that connects all the residents to the city, it renders all kind of information regarding the city customized according to one’s account. The other steps involve, providing free WIFI-  80 zones in the city offer this facility, ensuring pupil’s engagement- by providing laptop and computers to the students, using social media- for effective communication, providing open data- by allowing the general public to access the municipality database, offering online municipal service and developing a technology-friendly infrastructure. It was the result of all the splendid technological developments that the city won the title of the World’s smartest city in 2014.