The author of the most influential book published in the past decade about technology start-ups says Australia has the potential to be the innovation hub of the Asian region - if it allies with Israel.
Saul Singer, who co-wrote Start-up Nation, told an Australian trade mission in Jerusalem that if Australia joined forces with Israel it could become the innovation leader in the Asia-Pacific region.
"I have this theory that the countries that do a better job of combining the strengths of their innovation sectors with other countries will win," he said. 
"That's because we know that the way to build great start-ups is through great teams. I think there is a huge opportunity between Australia and Israel. Australia can be our bridge to Asia.
 "I think Australia can become a regional innovation hub, a hub for south-east Asia as well as combining forces with Israel."
Start-up Nation sold more than 7 million copies and has become the template for governments around the world trying to encourage entrepreneurship.
The Israeli government takes the book so seriously that last month it named the former head of the national economic council, Eugene Kandel, as chief executive of a new not-for-profit called Start-Up Nation Central.
The organisation and the calibre of its leadership reflect the growing concern within Israel about the country's ability to maintain growth in an industry that has about 4300 start-ups and adds about 700 new ones each year.
A decline in engineering, science and maths graduates has left the country with a shortage of human capital to feed the start-up machine. Analysis of Israel's national accounts shows start-ups boosted gross domestic product by 6 per cent over the past decade.
Australia's Assistant Minister for Innovation, Wyatt Roy, introduced Mr Singer to the Australian trade mission.
"Saul is a great visionary and through his authoring of Start-up Nation, he has really kick-started a discussion globally around how innovation can change the world, how it can create prosperity for our society and what are seen as the key elements of success in Israel," he said.
Mr Singer told the 45 people on the trade mission that it was hard to predict which countries would be leaders in innovation.
"Twenty years ago our biggest export was oranges and nobody could imagine this place, including the people doing high-tech here, that we would now be the start-up nation," he said.
"Nobody would have predicted that we would become an innovation leader. You couldn't tell by the size of the country by the state of our economy or anything.

'It's up for grabs'
"Today if we look 20 years ahead we are in a similar situation. We don't know who the innovation leaders of the world are going to be in each region and globally.
"You can't tell just by looking at the size of the country or the state of the economy right now. It's up for grabs."
Mr Roy told The Australian Financial Review that Australia needed to "hand the microphone to entrepreneurs".
"We need to make celebrate success and make entrepreneurs into the rock stars that they need to be," he said.
Mr Roy said he was in favour of Australia adopting something similar to the Israeli approach for disseminating government funding for start-ups called the Office of the Chief Scientist.
"Back home, people will think of government funding where there is a market failure," he said. "But if there is a market failure in Israel, people will say: 'I am not going to invest here'.
"If you only get the Chief Scientist funding something, people would think you are a failure. The success of the Chief Scientist funding is the brand of the person behind it. It is not the brand of the shiny government structure; it's the brand of the individual."
He said Israel's Chief Scientist, Avi Hasson, was a cult figure among investors in tech companies. Mr Hasson is advised by leading venture capitalists and successful technology founders.
Former Queensland premier Campbell Newman said during the vote of thanks that Australia was "at a bit of a crossroads".
"We all know that the mining boom of the last 15 years has run out of steam and as a result a whole lot of issues have been exposed across our country, which need to be dealt with," he said. "This trade mission is about remaking Australia."