"The business sector is under attack after the protest, which borders in some instances on incitement. Businesspeople are human and when morale is low, the will to invest falls," said Minister of Finance Yuval Steinitz today at the Economix.il conference of the Tel Aviv and Central Chamber of Commerce. "Globes" is the media sponsor of the event.
He added, "It's permitted to earn profits and that's good. There is no chance of growth without investors, without entrepreneurs, without CEOs, and without a living, vibrant and dynamic business sector. Thus this ranting against the business sector must stop, even if it means criticizing the protest, which in part involved rants against businesspeople while completely ignoring the global economic situation. It's impossible to manage the country's economy as if we are an isolated island. We don't want to be Spain."
High growth and low unemployment
Steinitz warned, "If we thought that the global crisis was behind us after two years then we were wrong. The global crisis is still here and even worsening. We must tell the truth. The reason everyone is out to save Greece is not love of the country but fear that a Greek exit from the euro will hit the euro zone hard. That's the reason that the IMF is putting up money because it is scared that the collapse of Europe will cause the US to collapse. We well know that if God forbid we were to behave irresponsibly and got into difficulties approaching those of Spain, there is nobody in the world that would extend us an assistance package of 100 billion euros."
Steinitz also referred to the controversial Law for the Encouragement of Capital Investment and said, "Even though you like it so much because it distinguishes between global exporters and Israelis, and reduces the taxes paid, it is vital for growth and employment. The manufacturing sector gets additional encouragement from us because it is the private sector which owns the manufacturing sector."
He strongly hinted that he had no plans to dump the law. He said, "If we lose the Law for the Encouragement of Capital Investment, we will also lose growth."
Regarding the 2012 budget, the Minister of Finance said that the main target is higher growth and lower unemployment. "Whoever doesn't achieve these has failed economically and socially."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on June 12, 2012
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