"Following the US, we have been speaking about lowering tax and now Kahlon and I are considering lowering it even more than we spoke about. Our main effort is to reduce regulation. We've fallen from 91st place in regulation to 46th," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the "Globes" Business Conference in Jerusalem this morning before attending the cabinet meeting to approve the budget."
He said, "I'm going to put the budget before the cabinet today. We are putting forward an excellent budget and economic arrangements bill that will serve all Israelis. Within two months it was pass its second and third readings. There are no social welfare policies without economic policies. It's impossible to divide the two. When somebody talks in favor of one or two items, I ask who pays."
"Economic power comes first and foremost from the Israeli economy and the Israeli economy springs from our ability to develop growth from which we take taxes. Economic strength gives us the ability to consolidate our security and it also develops technology."
"There was a country with brilliant mathematicians and engineers but the country didn't develop them. They had a high level of education but didn't create economic wealth from it - it was the Soviet Union. There is a huge power called China but it is not pulling its weight because it is competing with the free markets in the west. You need the free market component. For there to be growth, you need a free market. Officials don't create the money, it is the companies and businesses that make the money and we must give them the possibility of succeeding or failing."
"Israel is in an unprecedented phase of diplomatic power, economic power and military power and it is making how country unrecognizable."
"We have taken control of the public sector which was squandering money. The ambition is to increase the private sector and reduce the public sector and we must restrict the numbers that the government commits to in the future."
Netanyahu continued, "I've heard in conversations with many of you that you cry, really cry about regulation in Israel. And we will cut regulation. I want for Israel to reach deregulation so that Israel is one of the world's top ten countries in terms of competitiveness. It's far away and it's difficult but it can be achieved."
On the housing market he said, "The change in supply will ultimately influence the distorted prices. We want to free up more space for demand and that's why we have launched the artificial islands plan. I began to deal with this in 1996 when I was elected and felt that the value of land did not justify it. Today with the rise in value of land in the center of the country, it makes possible and justifies moving army bases to the south and building artificial islands. Today we see how the economic effect of changing infrastructures is altering the distribution of the population in Israel."
He continued, "People say that the rich profit and the poor lose but that doesn't happen in Israel." Netanyahu presented graphs to prove a fall in inequality since 2003. The Gini index is still high in Israel but it is consistently falling."
Netanyahu reiterated, "There are no social welfare policies without economic growth. A growing economy needs the basic work of cutting taxes because it's not possible to pick the fruit from the tree without watering it. People want to pick the fruit but only a few know how to grow it."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on January 11, 2018
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2018