“Other than a few bases, all of central Israel will be free of IDF bases - that is the goal,” Prime Minister's Office Director General Harel Locker said today at the "Globes"-BDO Ziv Haft Capital Market Conference. Locker has been appointed by the government to formulate a plan to vacate IDF bases, as part of attempts to deal with the defense budget. “This has several advantages," Locker said, "First of all, it is a huge infrastructure project, involving tens of billions of shekels, and this sort of government investment will contribute to economic activity in the market. Also, the plan will free land for more than 100,000 housing units in high-demand areas in central Israel, and establishing this many bases in the periphery will be a tremendous economic boost for the North and the South of the country. Tens of thousands of career officers and soldiers will work, live, buy, and enrich these areas.”
“What is new is that we are talking about all IDF bases between Haifa and Beersheva,” added Locker, “I am not talking about 19 billion, but tens of billions of shekels. Most importantly, I am talking about money that will be raised through the capital markets, not from the state budget. We are aware of the budgetary reality, and the routine arguments. In order to circumvent these problems, the plan is to raise the funding to carry out this massive, once-in-history operation from the capital markets. In a word: securitization. What asset will repay the debt? The most expensive lands in high-demand areas. The state will sell them for tens of billions of shekels.
"Dependence on the defense budget is only frustrating and makes the process more difficult. The move to the periphery needs to be separate from this battle, and, therefore, we need you for extra-budgetary financing. The establishment of the new bases will be funded by financial institutions, banks, and other entities. I hope we will complete the process within a few weeks.”
On market regulation, Locker said, “We will bring a general action plan for deregulation before the government for approval , and establish a central unit for reducing regulation. The burden of doing business in Israel has grown too much.”
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on June 2, 2014
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