Posted on 11/10/2003 4:30:39 PM PST by yonif
Israel will build a railway between Ashdod and Eilat, allowing ships that dock at the Red Sea port to transfer goods to the ports of Ashdod and Haifa and from there to Europe via the Mediterranean Sea, in an attempt to compete with the Suez Canal, Finance Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said Sunday.
Speaking to investors at the fifth Go4Europe business conference at Tel Aviv's Hilton Hotel, organized by investment bank Cukierman & Co., Netanyahu said that big ships arriving from the Far East are now forced to transfer their goods by land to an Egyptian port on the Mediterranean from which they are moved to Europe.
India and China export finished products to the US and Europe by sea, the finance minister said. "If we extend the railway from Beersheba to Nahal Zin all the way to the Eilat and Ashdod ports, 180 kilometers, we can break the monopoly of the Suez Canal," Netanyahu said. "At an investment of several million shekels we can link the Mediterranean with the Red Sea."
The finance minister added that, if Jordan expresses interest in joining the project, the link can be extended to the modernized Aqaba Port. If the Hashemite kingdom declines to participate, the government will expand Eilat Port, he said.
Netanyahu added that, as trade among India, China, and Europe is expected to increase dramatically in the next two decades, Israel must prepare itself to serve as a bridge between Asia and Europe.
Netanyahu, who received a warm welcome from the 500 participants, including some 150 European business people, called on foreign businesses to invest in Israel now, saying that those who don't will regret it in six months.
"If you don't invest in Israel today you will lose a lot," the finance minister said. "I said it also six months ago and since then the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange gained 50 percent."
Netanyahu added that the government will privatize all state-controlled companies besides the defense industry, which will be privatized gradually. "We will privatize Bank Leumi, Bank Discount, Oil Refineries, Mekorot, and Bezeq," he said.
"Everything we own will go on the market." Netanyahu added that he will also break the monopolies, which he claims reduce gross domestic product by several percentage points each year.
"We will break Tnuva," he said. "There is no reason that the price of a Yoplait yogurt sold in Paris is half of the same Yoplait yogurt manufactured by Tnuva's franchise."
He added that, when all the reforms are completed in several years, Israel will become one of the "freest markets in the world."
Netanyahu noted that he will travel on Sunday night to Washington, where he has been asked to address the Senate. "Among other things, they have asked me to speak on what we did with the pension system," he said.
"Everything we own will go on the market." Netanyahu added that he will also break the monopolies, which he claims reduce gross domestic product by several percentage points each year.
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