Formula Group chairman Danny Goldstein today attacked the government's degree of involvement in business activity fields in Israel, which, he says, prevents market forces from operating.
"We suffer from over-regulation", Goldstein said, "which makes it very difficult for us to compete on the global market, especially against competitors such as the United States, where government intervention is minimal. I am prepared to forgo government benefits, such as the Chief Scientist or the Law for the Encouragement of Capital Investments, provided the government waives regulation". Goldstein was speaking at the inaugural ceremony of the New Applicom convention today at Kfar Hamaccabia.
Goldstein noted that 70% of Israeli start-up companies registered last year as companies in the US, and he attributed this to the difficulties piled in the way of business initiatives in Israel. "The high-tech industry lifted Israel out of its anonymity in the global business world", he said, "but it is by no means certain that Israel's place among the world's great high-tech centres can be maintained. This is mainly because Israel has difficulty in accepting the fact that we are part of the global village. And in this field, we must compete under different conditions than those that govern traditional industrial sectors".
Goldstein also slammed the taxation of foreign investors which, he maintains, does not encourage investment in Israel, and the impossibility of importing skilled workers to Israel. This results, he said, "in a one-way brain drain - out from here".
Published by Israel's Business Arena on 27 June 2000