"The main investment barriers in Israel involve taxation and regulatory stability. The security situation is also troublesome, but it does not constitute a significant barrier," Ministry of the Economy International Investments and Industrial Cooperation Authority chief executive Ziva Eger told "Globes." In recent weeks, Eger has begun a campaign in a number of countries in an attempt to encourage foreign investments in Israel. This campaign includes conferences that have already taken place in Japan and Australia and additional investors conferences slated to take place in China, the UK, and other countries next year. "We absolutely want to label the Israeli economy around the world as a place suitable and worthwhile for non-financial investments, so that it will be possible to build manufacturing infrastructure here and develop new places of business," Eger remarked.
According to Eger, following the activity completed by the unit she headed in Japan, "From the moment we left the conference we held in Jaffa, I've been getting dozens of e-mails with requests to send delegations of representatives from large companies looking for places in which to invest to Israel. If we're talking about non-financial investments, there's already a very nice deal with a very large company from Japan that wants to do a significant volume of manufacturing in Israel. It's too early to disclose any details, but I nevertheless believe that we'll see significant non-financial investment in the Israeli economy during the coming year. Without any connection to this case, there's a deal I'm trying to promote with an investors from Canada who wants to make a fine investment here," she declares.
Eger adds, "The task of persuading investors to come to Israel is a difficult challenge, among other things because of the differences in labor costs between Israel and Far Eastern countries. In other cases, investors prefer to open production lines close to the markets, and here Israel has no advantage. At the same time, when you expose the Israeli economy and innovation to potential investors, they show great interest, and they find the proposed investment options enticing. Despite matters such as uncertainty about tax rates and regulation, Israel still offers an attractive basket of incentives. Corporate tax in Israel is among the lowest in the world, and we offer companies other incentives they can't get from any other country."
Eger founded the International Investments and Industrial Cooperation Authority in the Ministry of the Economy a year ago in the framework of reorganizing activity by the Industrial Cooperation Authority. She is presenting the UK investors, to whom she will make a presentation in the coming days, together with Israeli entrepreneurs and businessmen, with an opportunity: "The UK has emerged from the 2008 crisis, and there's a lot of money floating around on the street, with investors showing interest in investments. Our activity in the UK was opened on the London Stock Exchange, and beyond the appeal to the many investors who are potential investors in Israel, this also constitutes a statement that the British support and believe in the Israeli economy," she says.
Eger prefers to ignore the activity of BDS, the movement supporting a boycott of Israel, saying, "Our conferences in many countries are giving the world completely opposite messages. I'm already getting queries from countries like Brazil and Mexico about holding similar conferences for exposing potential investors to the Israeli market."
Ministry of the Economy figures show that 300 foreign companies are operating in Israel, and foreign investors invested $6.4 billion in the Israeli economy in 2014. The figures also show that over the past five years, total foreign investment in Israel exceeded $40 billion. The main investments are in computers, electrical equipment, information services, and financial services. These investments include the expansion in Israel by US chip giant Intel in Kiryat Gat and the activity of HP. "At the moment, I don't see investment in Israel on the same scale as Intel on the horizon. Still, there are two or three opportunities on the agenda for production plants that may come to Israel, and then I'll strive to have them placed in the outlying areas," Eger stated.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on December 2, 2015
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