One of the main topics discussed at a meeting of the US-Israel Joint Economic Development Group (JEDG) at the US Department of State in Washington yesterday was finding a solution to unemployment in Israel.
Ministry of Finance director general and budget director Ohad Marani headed the Israeli delegation, which included Minister for Economic Affairs at the Israel Embassy in Washington Boaz Raday, Bank of Israel director of research Dr. Karnit Flug, Ministery of Finance economic director Michael Sharel, Ministry of Finance deputy budget director Yoel Naveh, and Ministry of Finance deputy director general Barry Ben-Zion.
Under Secretary of State for Economic, Business, and Agricultural Affairs, Alan P. Larson headed the US delegation, which included Department of Commerce Deputy Assistant Secretary responsible for the Middle East and North Africa Molly Williamson and representatives of the Council of Economic Advisors and the White House.
JEDG is one of three joint Israel-US work groups launched on April 21, 1988. The other two are the Joint Political Military Group (JPMG) and the Joint Security Assistance Planning Group (JSAP). The groups, which meet every year, are the main instruments for institutionalized economic and military cooperation between the two countries.
For the first time since JEDG was founded, private sector representatives from both countries were included in the meeting and were asked to recommend new channels of economic cooperation involving private companies.
Representing Israel at yesterday's meeting were Gilat Satellite Networks (Nasdaq: GILTF) CEO Yoel Gat and Ormat chairman and Orbotech (Nasdaq: ORBK) director Lucien Yehuda Bronicki, while the US was represented by executives from AOL-Time-Warner (NYSE: AOL), BellSouth (NYSE: BLS), and Quintiles Transnational Corporation (Nasdaq: QTRN). Inviting the private sector representatives was a US initiative, which has been applied in US joint work groups with other countries.
The private sector representatives held separate meetings and discussed cooperation in economic aid to developing countries.
Marani told "Globes" that the US had "great confidence in the way the Israeli economy is being managed." US delegation members expressed great interest in Israel's exchange rate and unemployment problems.
Published by Israel's Business Arena on February 14, 2002