Finally good news on cutting bureaucracy? FICC says so

Of the mantras endlessly repeated on how Israel can boost its economy, the need to cut red tape and reduce bureaucracy is among the most common.

On Tuesday, the Federation of Israeli Chambers of Commerce, a business interest group, said that Israel was, after years of backsliding, making progress.

In its regular report on bureaucracy, done in association with SQ, the FICC found that measures of Israeli services reached a new peak of 6.92 on a 10-point scale (10 being best), surpassing the 2013 peak of 6.87.

“This achievement must continue. Reducing bureaucracy must be one of the central goals of the government’s ministers,” said FICC president Uriel Lynn.

The overall index, which is based on surveys of businesses ranking the various ministries on their service, incorporating measures of wait times, availability of representatives, and quality of service.

In their rankings of ministries, the court system continues to perform best, with a score of 7.4, followed by the economy ministry and National Insurance. The Transportation Ministry came at the bottom of the list, falling from its 2nd place ranking of 7.02 in 2015 to 6.56, likely due to a prolonged strike among drivers license testers.

Across the board, the scores were weighed down by long weight times and availability of service. The businesses surveyed estimated wait times to be two to five times slower than they deemed acceptable.

Though the survey indicated increased performance, other measure of Israel’s red tape have yet to catch up.

The World Bank’s 2016 ease of doing business index saw Israel fall three spots, to 53rd, down 23 spots since 2009, when it was ranked 30th.

In March, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu put in place a regular committee to meet on reducing bureaucracy.