"The potential of the Arab sector is huge and untapped," said Shfaram Mayor Nahed Khazem at the Israel Building Center conference in Shfaram for investors interested in Arab Israeli towns and ventures. "The time has come for the government to relate to this, partly because of the potential for increasing GDP."
Khazem added, "It should be realized that without the Arab and haredi (ultra-orthodox) communities, the economy will not flourish as expected. I hope that Minister of Finance Yair Lapid, who has spoken about the middle class, will also give his attention the poor, and the Arab sector in particular. Until now, I have not heard him mention the Arab sector. The country's development also depends on the development of the Arab sector, and this sector's huge potential is untapped now."
"Globes": Where is Shfaram's untapped potential, for example?
Khazem: "Today, there is no industrial zone in any Arab town. Only last year, after years of bureaucracy and exhausting work, was Shfaram's business area declared a regional industrial zone, thanks to the Authority for the Economic Development of the Arab, Druze and Circassian Sectors at the Prime Minister's Office. For this purpose, we allocated 800 dunam (200 acres) of Israel Land Administration and privately owned land, and we are now drawing up an outline plan for the whole area to exploit its huge potential. Shfaram is located on two key arteries - Road 70 and Road 79 - and will soon be connected to Road 6, which gives it huge untapped potential.
"I have several times proposed to the government, 'Come once and invest smartly in the Arab sector. I want my town to be financially sound.' So long as 80% of the arnona (local property tax) I collect comes from households, of which almost 50% receive discounts, how can I develop? Instead of continuing to receive equalization grants of NIS 25-30 million every year, the government should decide to make a one-time NIS 150 million long-term investment to build a Shfaram industrial zone, so we will no longer need government support. Private developers we've met immediately identified the great potential and large purchasing power, but they also saw the many bureaucratic obstacles. If the government will see this, within three years, we could have an industrial zone that is the equal of the Tefen Industrial Park."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on April 29, 2013
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