Gov’t announces billions in investment in the North
Government ministries and the Jewish National Fund (JNF) will invest some NIS 15 billion to bolster the economy in the North and raise the standard of living, under a plan unveiled Monday at a ceremony in Ma’alot-Tarshiha.
Under the new plan, announced by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon and Interior Minister and Development of the Negev and Galilee Minister Arye Deri, large budgets will be allocated for developing infrastructure, for encouraging industry, employment and R&D, for improving the public health system, for strengthening local government and for raising the standard of school and higher education.
In early November, figures were released showing that gaps between Israel’s center and its periphery were among the widest of such gaps in the OECD countries, with health and education the most problematic areas.
“We are determined to bring the same standards as are considered the norm in the center of the country to the north as well,” said Kahlon at the ceremony.
“The distance from the center of Israel must not mean gaps in services to citizens. It is impossible to speak of a single society without solving once and for all the problem of the link between distance from the center and social gaps. After years of investment in the Center and the Negev, the North’s time has come. I am certain that this plan is a large step in the direction of realizing these aims.”
Deri added, “In the coming years, the North will receive billions of shekels in aid from the government in all areas so that the most beautiful region in the country will be strengthened and will prosper. I am certain that these large investments will make the North stronger and more flourishing.”
At the ceremony, Netanyahu urged citizens to buy apartments in the Galilee, calling it an investment in the future.
“A few years ago – and you, my minister friends must remember this – we said and I said down South, ‘Buy apartments, not just in Beersheba; buy apartments in Dimona, in Yeruham... Buy apartments.’ Some heeded the call and did so, and some did not.”
“I am telling all the residents of the North, and particularly the very young. Buy apartments, invest in the Galilee, invest in it, for it is the future.”
The plan, due to be brought before the government this Sunday, is based on economic studies showing substantial gaps in employment and earnings figures between the North and the rest of the country. The plan was formulated in cooperation with local authorities and representatives.
Under the plan, NIS 12 b. will be invested in infrastructure, including large transport projects such as a light rail connecting Haifa to Nazareth; extending the Metronit lines from Haifa to surrounding towns; paving, upgrading and widening of roads and interchanges. NIS 600 m. will be invested in efforts to attract companies to the north. NIS 1 b. will be invested in education. The money will go to longer school hours, informal education, school construction and expansion of academic institutions.
NIS 900 m. will go to health services in the North, to be invested in building hospital wards and in the national plan for shortening queues for health services. Local government will receive NIS 220 m. in development grants for weak local authorities and aid in various activities.
Netanyahu vowed that the plan would “do in the North what we did in the South, and we mean that. We want to build a future here, and the future is young people, the future is employment. We want to combine governmental infrastructure with entrepreneurship and an open market. We’re talking about security plants that will relocate to the North and produce innovation and advanced equipment.”
In addition to investment by the government, the JNF will allocate NIS 400 m. to projects to encourage research, construction of student accommodation, tourism infrastructures, housing projects and construction of health facilities.
Working teams led by Minister of Finance director-general Shai Babad will be set up to promote strategic measures, such as transferring IDF bases and government companies to the north.
Jerusalem Post staff contributed to this report.