Zhan Yongxin (right), Chinese ambassador to Israel, meets with Zeng Yi, head of the Chengdu media delegation. [Photo by Huang Zhiling/chinadaily.com.cn

"It would be a win-win solution thanks to the wisdom of the Jewish and Chinese people," she said.

Home to some 271,000 people, Haifa is one of the smallest cities in the world but has three Nobel Prize laureates, while Chengdu is a center of science and technology in Southwest China with 14 million residents.

Some 50 leading high-tech firms are active in Matam, including Intel, IBM, Elbit Systems, Zim, Phillips, Microsoft, GE, HP, CMP and Netmanage, and employ upwards of 8,000 workers.

Almog, asked how Haifa has attracted so many multinational companies and what lessons Chengdu could learn from it, said her municipality tries its best to help firms in Matam solve any problems and Haifa has advantages in human resources.

Haifa has the largest number of students in Israel. The city also appeals to investors with its beautiful natural environment and three large medical institutions, including the Rambam Health Care Campus, Almog said.

Rambam's proximity to northern Israel's high-tech scientific industrial parks has enabled research and development partnerships that have contributed to the country's eminence in biomedicine and life sciences, she said.