אלבום חברות התעשייה וההיי-טק המובילות בישראל

and property taxes are stifling, and taxes are stifling - and on the other hand, imports from esoteric countries are facilitated. In such a case, investment in industry will decrease and stagnation in investment will lead to a decline in output and productivity. Let’s take the environment as an example. Who does not want to preserve the environment? But it’s impossible if, for example, I am a steel producer who strictly adheres to environmental rules and therefore production for me is quite expensive; I compete with a Turkish steel producer, who does not invest a penny in environmental protection. So, it’s not fair to tell me to compete against the Turkish manufacturer in the price range. It doesn’t make sense. This is the regulation, and these are the production costs, and a serious government plan is needed here to encourage industry and employment, which will consider all the challenges we face and bring Israeli industry to fair competition with imports, competition on equal terms, without tying unnecessary weights to our feet. Changing this situation, a move I am working on, can allow us to reach and truly be one of the most advanced economies in the entire world. In parenthesis I would like to say that Israeli industry, in all parameters, is in a good place in terms of preserving the environment. Of course, it is impossible to produce without pollutant emissions at all. It’s not practical. But today awareness and strictness are so prevalent and so influential that infection is as minimal as possible. Even if it is a heavy industry. The industry pollutes much less than transportation, and much less than ports. Even in Haifa Bay, the industry contributes less than a tenth of the pollution. This was well proved in the first period of the Corona, where the country was brought to a halt. Transportation stood still, and there was almost no trade in ports. But the industry worked, almost at full power, and the result was a dramatic drop in air pollution, and the air quality improved greatly. Suddenly it turned out that it is not the industry that is the main polluter. An important issue in which the Manufacturers Association has been involved in recent times, since the signing of the Abraham Agreements, is the establishment of strong economic ties with the Emirates. We are working to create real collaborations with our new friends from the Persian Gulf. For example - joint production lines, joint investments and more. We hope this new relationship will serve also as a gateway to more countries in our region. Even before formal relations were established, the industry served as a channel that operated under the radar and established, in collaboration with the Israeli Foreign Ministry, initial contacts with their counterparts there. However, while in countries such as Morocco, in which an Israeli embassy was recently established, “Made in Israel” labeled products could also be found in the past - in the Emirates this was not possible. Although Israeli companies sold their products to the Emirates (the trade volume between the two countries before the peace agreements was about $1 billion a year), it was necessary to sell through a third, intermediary company. Today that has changed. Israeli high-tech companies and agriculture firms began to sell their products directly in the Emirates. The realtor was cut, and expenses were saved. For these companies and many others - which are not huge companies - the Manufacturers Association is the one building the bridge. An individual company does not have the means I see in the Israeli industry the complete realization of the Zionist idea; A strong economy, a strong society, advanced defense industries, and a base for a strong army