DAYTON — It has been six months since the city, Montgomery County and Dayton Development Coalition combined to establish a trade office in Israel to help Miami Valley companies find business there.

Uri Attir, point man in the office in the Israeli port city of Haifa, has helped to get 28 companies into discussions about potential trade and technology partnerships between Israeli and Dayton-area businesses, said Joe Tuss, Montgomery County’s director of economic development.

Tuss declined to identify those companies and said he expected no imminent announcement of any agreements, but seems encouraged by the progress so far.

“These are relation-building processes,” Tuss said.

The University of Dayton and Wright State University are participants in the Dayton-Israel trade effort.

Attir, in an interview by videolink from his Haifa office, said Israeli aerospace and defense companies he contacts pay close attention when he tells them the Dayton region is home to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base and multimillion-dollar research and development programs.

Attir said he will travel across Israel, if necessary, to meet with local business executives and introduce Miami Valley companies seeking business relationships. His official title is business development director for the Dayton Region Israel Trade Alliance.

Attir, whose position is funded by private donations for three years, has a background in the Israeli business world and formerly worked for the Israel-U.S. Bi-National Industrial Research & Development Foundation, which supports development of trade between the countries. He holds a master’s degree in business administration from Case Western Reserve University and his wife is from the Cleveland area.

J. Tony Manuel, whose Dayton-based defense contractor STAN Solutions has an Israeli business relationship that predates Attir’s hiring, said Attir’s fluency in Israel’s business world and culture has been a plus. STAN Solutions markets a surveillance camera developed by an Israeli company, Adaptive Imaging Technologies.

“He helps as a go-between, helps in getting businesses to talk to each other and work together,” said Manuel, STAN Solutions’ president. “It simplifies things.”

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2242 or jnolan@DaytonDailyNews.com.