"Over the last two years, a revolution has occurred in the way Israel manages its economy, the focus of which is changing over to a bi-annual budget. Within a few years we will see many western countries, including the US, adopting the option of a bi-annual budget," Israeli Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz said today at the Israel Bar Association convention in Eilat during a panel titled, "Economic Agenda."
Steinitz added that when he took office about two years ago, he had one clear goal: to cope with the extraordinary global economic crisis that threatened the entire world economy as well as the Israeli economy. In addition to this, Minister Steinitz said that he set strategic goals that would affect the Israeli economy in the long-term.
"The first goal was to make Israel the first country in the world to switch over to a bi-annual budget system. This important tool will bring about a real revolution in the functioning of the Israeli government with ramifications throughout its entire economy.
The second task was after fifteen years of "two steps forward, one step backward," to guide Israel into the OECD, which functions as a security buffer against any entity that might try to isolate Israel economically from the rest of the world." According to Steinitz, membership in this organization guarantees that countries around the world won't be able to disconnect themselves economically from Israel.
"This was an almost impossible mission since it would have been enough for one country to refuse to accept Israel into the organization for Israel not to be accepted. This mission was beyond my ability and it was clear to me that only two specific people could help get Israel accepted into the organization, and they were OECD secretary general Angel Gurria and White House director of the office of management and budget Jacob Lew. Only after receiving a personal commitment from both of them were we able to break through."
The third goal that Steinitz spoke of was "to return to the state and the Israeli people the nation's natural resources, mainly in natural gas and oil, but also the resources of the Dead Sea, according to the standards accepted among the enlightened nations of the world, and this mission was completed as a result of the Sheshinski commission and the adoption of its conclusions about a month and a half ago."
According to Steinitz, "Payments to the state tripled from 20% to 60%. The public debate on the issue sometimes crossed the line, but everything ended well. We are talking about NIS 200 billion that the public will receive over the next few decades."
During his speech, Steinitz did not forget to address the attorneys seated in the convention hall, among them State Attorney Moshe Lador and Israel Bar Association chairman Yuri Guy-Ron, saying, "There cannot be true economic growth without quality attorneys. Israel has been blessed with a quality legal system and I hope we can preserve it.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com on May 30, 2011
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