Israel Business Today back issues from May 1998:
2% Economic Growth Cannot Create New Jobs
May 15, 1998 ... The present economic growth rate of two percent in Israel, (whichmay drop to one percent) cannot produce new jobs. Mr. Ben ZionZilberfarb the new director general of the treasury said that thework force in Israel is increasing by 2.4 percent a year and ...
British Prime Minister Talks Business
May 15, 1998 ... During his visit to Israel the British Prime Minister Mr. Tony Blairtook time out from his political talks to speak to some of Israel'sleasing businessmen. He praised the work being done by London basedMr. Peter Style from the British Overseas Trade Group for ...
Former Prime Minister Shimon Peres
May 15, 1998 ... * Former Prime Minister Shimon Peres seems to have rethought his newMiddle East doctrine. At a symposium on military research, Mr. Perescalled on the nations' defense industries to develop electronicwarfare systems that can cripple Arab military communications, ...
Israel's 50th jubilee celebrations
May 15, 1998 ... * As part of Israel's 50th jubilee celebrations stamp collectorswill be able to visit the newly opened Museum of Israeli philately.The new museum, on the grounds of the Eretz ...
Israel's Knesset passed a preliminary bill
May 15, 1998 ... * Israel's Knesset passed a preliminary bill that would set up afood and drug administration agency modeled after The U.S.A. Foodand Drug Administration. The Israel agency would centralizelicensing standards, enforcement and monitoring of drug and food ...
South African Immigrants May Be Encouraged With State Land
May 15, 1998 ... The Jewish Agency and the Israel Land Administration (ILA) arelooking into starting a program to sell State owned land for homeconstruction as a way of encouraging immigration from South Africa.Mr. Bertie Brudo, the ILA director said that the immigrants would be ...
Israel Agrees To End American Civilian Aid
May 15, 1998 ... America, since the middle 1980's, has graciously been providingIsrael with $ 1.2 billion a year in civilian aid. The Israelieconomy has now grown large enough to allow the Finance Minister,Mr. Ne'eman to concur with Mr. Indyk (the U.S. Assistant Secretary ...
Romania Celebrates 50 Years Of Uninterrupted Ties
May 15, 1998 ... Romania is the only one of the Eastern European countries who canhelp Israel celebrate its [50.sup.th] anniversary, by saying, wewere here all of these years and we have seen Israel build itself upyear after year. Romania has had uninterrupted economic and ...
Want To Drive A Cab?
May 15, 1998 ... For many years, a license to operate a taxi in Israel was a rationedprivilege given only to those who had the right connections. Thispolicy created a shortage of cabs and a black-market where tens ofthousands of dollars were exchanged for a license. Now under the ...
British Week In Tel Aviv
May 15, 1998 ... As a follow up to the British Prime Minister's visit to Israel, andto celebrate Israel's 50th jubilee, British Trade Minister LordClinton Davis and Marks and Spencer's managing director - Lord Stoneled a delegation of leading British businessmen, ...
Two Person Households Spend NIS. 1,680 ($ 465) monthly on food
May 15, 1998 ... According to a survey by the manufacturer's association, in 1997.The average Jewish household of two people approximately spent NIS400 a week or NIS 1680 a month on food. Households with three-fourpeople had an average expense of NIS 1750 per month. Households ...
Israel - Texas Program Enters 3rd Year
May 15, 1998 ... Texas (U.S.) Agricultural Commissioner Rick Perry recently announcedthat grants for 9 different projects were approved by the Texas -Israel exchange board. Some of these projects are in their thirdyear of research. The research programs in this project put ...
U.S. State Activity In Israel An Untold Success Story
May 15, 1998 ... With all the reporting about the slowdown of Israel's economy overthe last few years, one of the untold success stories has been thesteady stream of U.S. states that have opened overseas trade officesin Israel.From a single office in Israel four years ...
Rental Costs To Replace Sales Price Of Apartments In Monthly CPI.
May 15, 1998 ... Starting January 1999 one of the major components making up theIsrael consumer price index (CPI) housing costs will be revised.From January 1999 the change in apartment rental prices will replacethe change in the price of apartments component in the CPI. This ...
Wolf Prizes For 1998
May 15, 1998 ... The Wolf Foundation awarded its 1998 prizes for outstandingAchievements in agriculture, chemistry, mathematics, medicine,physics, and the arts at a ceremony held in the Israeli Knesset.Each prize carrying with it $ 100,000 was presented to its recipient ...
Israelis Like 100 Shekel Notes
May 15, 1998 ... According to the annual report of the currency department at theBank of Israel, the 100-shekel note was most popular with theIsraeli public in 1997 (Israelis also like 100-dollar notes best).The value of 100 shekel notes in circulation was NIS 4.3 billion, ...
Not All The News Is Bad
May 15, 1998 ... Exports rose a strong 13 percent during the first quarter of 1998.This is almost double the 7 percent increase in the last threemonths of 1997. Exports to the European union were up 15 percent andthat 13 percent more goods were sent to U.S. markets. The only ...
Despite Economic Slowdown In Israel PC Market Grows 15 Percent
May 15, 1998 ... Despite slower economic growth in Israel, the market for personalcomputers has not been adversely affected. A new report fromInternational Data Corporation (IDC) shows a 15 percent unit growthfrom 217,000 units sold in 1996 and 12 percent growth in revenues, ...
1st Quarter Trade With China Up
May 15, 1998 ... Bilateral trade with China increased during the first quarter of1998 by 43 percent totaling $ 88 million. China is finding Israelimarkets more attractive as it exported 48 percent more products toIsrael during January - March 1998 than it did in the same quarter ...
Mexico And Israel Hold Free Trade Talks
May 15, 1998 ... A trade delegation from Mexico held three days of talks withofficials form the Ministry of Industry and Trade in Jerusalem.These talks centered on establishing a free trade agreement betweenMexico and Israel. Discussions were focus on rules of origin, trade ...
Technion Civilian Satellite Going Up
May 15, 1998 ... An Israeli civilian satellite built by the Technion is set to belaunched in June 1998. The satellite will be launched by aKazakhstan company on a rocket together with several othersatellites from different countries. Israel will pay $ 250,000 forthe ...
Tax Revenues Increasing
May 15, 1998 ... Taxes collected by the treasury totaled NIS 37.5 billion during thefirst four months of 1998. This is a slight inflation adjusted realincrease of 0.3 percent over the same period of last year, but anincrease none the less. The tax commissioner noted that his ...
NetManage 1st
May 15, 1998 ... NetManage is a company that produces products for computernetworking. The company has announced that it is the firstconnectivity supplier to fully address the year 2000 problem. The2000-year problem is an industry wide software problem that must be ...
Israel Aircraft Industries Turns The Corner
May 15, 1998 ... Israel Aircraft Industries (IAI) recently released their financialresults for 1997. For the first time in 5 years, a profit of $ 30million before taxes and special expenses was recorded, as comparedto a loss of $ 41 million in 1996. Net profits for 1997 were $ 24 ...
AIG Offers New V.I.P. service
May 15, 1998 ... The American Israeli insurance company, AIG Golden Insurance, whichintroduced direct personal customer insurance into the Israelimarket, has initiated its new V.I.P. car insurance service. ThisV.I.P. service will entitle its clients to special attention from ...
Israel - Turkey - Russia Investing In Hotel
May 15, 1998 ... The Yona International Group has purchased a 40 percent interest inone of Russia's most prestigious hotels. The Israeli company willjoin together with its' Turkish and Russian partners in renovatingthe hotel. The 14 story Moscow hotel, located between the ...
Boeing Enterprises Investing In Rada Electronic Industries
May 15, 1998 ... Boeing Enterprises, the business development arm of the Americanaerospace giant, has signed an agreement to acquire over 40 percentof Israeli Herzliya based, Rada Electronic Industries, for $ 10million. Rada has subsidiaries in the U.S. and Europe, manufactures ...
Changing Colors By Genetic Engineering
May 15, 1998 ... Professor Yossi Hershberg of the Hebrew University recentlypresented a genetic engineering breakthrough to the heads ofIsrael's Kibbutz food industries. His project succeeded in isolatingthe genes that control color in agricultural products. His ...
SciDel Raises 4.84 Million
May 15, 1998 ... In a recent private placement, SciDel an Israeli digital videostart-up raised $ 4.84 million. The venture capital firm GeminiIsrael invested $ 2.5 million of this amount. Clal Electronics, theStar fund, Scitex and the CEO of the company Mr. Bendel also ...
Magic Software Begins Indian Venture
May 15, 1998 ... Magic Software Enterprises (MSE), the Israeli based, market-leadingvendor of RADD (Rapid Application Development), has set up a jointventure based in Pune, India - Magic Infotech India (MIT).Magic's RADD Tools offer excellent programmer productivity. ...
Princess Diana Would Have Liked The Technion's Invention
May 15, 1998 ... Princess Diana, who spent much of the last years of her lifecampaigning against land mines, would have has a strong interest inthe Technion's newly developed land mine clearance system.Scientists at the Haifa Technion have developed a special land mine ...
Renaissance Awarded Contract To Develop New Windows Environment For Robot Programs
May 15, 1998 ... Renaissance Computer Systems Ltd. announced today that it has signeda contract with Yaskawa Eshed Technology Ltd. (YET) to develop thenext generation Windows development environment for programmingtheir advanced industrial robot controllers. The software will ...
National Semiconductor To Build Super Chip In Israel
May 15, 1998 ... During a recent trip to Israel, National Semiconductor (NS)President Brian Halla said the Israeli branch of the company locatedin Herzelia will play a major rule in developing a $ 500 PC by 1999.NIS will be adding 70 to 80 engineers to their present Israel staff ...
Sheraton Israel Increase Their Local Operations
May 15, 1998 ... Sheraton Israel recently signed a management contract to run theCity Tower Hotel and Business Complex, a $ 100 million project. Thecomplex is located at the Diamond Exchange in Ramat Gan. This ...
UN Procurement Conference Holds Meeting In Israel
May 15, 1998 ... A UN procurement group met in Tel Aviv from May 11-15, 1998. Duringa two-day exhibition sixty Israeli companies displayed theirproducts. The sectors included medical, transport, irrigation andtelecommunication equipment. Consultant services are needed by the ...
Eisenberg And Tomen Join to Reduce Power In Romania
May 15, 1998 ... United Development Inc (UDI) a company owned by Mr. Eisenberg,jointed together with Japan's Tomen Corporation to sign a $ 100million contract to renovate one of Romania's major power plants.The plant will be the first independent power producing plant in ...
Electra To India
May 15, 1998 ... Israel's Electra Consumer Products has announced plans to set up anair conditioning manufacturing plant in India. Electra will invest $6 million in buying a factory and in start-up costs. The plant willstart operating in 1999. India has a huge middle class ...
Doing Something
May 15, 1998 ... Many of Israel's high tech companies are complaining about theshortage of trained technological manpower. Tower Semiconductors,which is in the midst of a company wide expansion, has decided to dosomething that will benefit the company and help the unemployed. The ...
Dovrat Shrem Places $ 5 million
May 15, 1998 ... Dovrat Shrem Israel's leading investment banking group has made a $5 million private placement for Sensotech. Dovrat Shrem raised the $5 million from North American and European investors. Sensotech isan Israeli high tech company established in 1995 that ...
Arkia Rents Planes And Crews From Turkey And Germany
May 15, 1998 ... Arkia Airlines was forced to lease planes and crews from both Turkeyand Germany after El-Al reneged on its plan to lease aircraft andcrews to Arkia. Arkia's crews are paid less than those of El-Al. Theairline's union ...
Pratt And Whitney Interested In Expending Investments In Israel
May 15, 1998 ... Pratt and Whitney, the American jet aircraft engine manufacturer hasbeen producing in a joint venture with the Wertheimer Groupcompressor airfoils, turbines, nickel compressor blades and otherjet engine parts in Israel. This joint venture has been so ...
Rolls Royce And Iscar In Joint Venture
May 15, 1998 ... Rolls Royce, the British engine manufacturer, has drafted anagreement for a joint venture with Iscar. The joint venture willmanufacture fully automated airplane engine parts. Once the contractis sign by both companies, the machine production of jet engine ...
Hong Kong's Hutchison
May 15, 1998 ... Hutchison Telecom, the Hong Kong based company that is the leadpartner in the consortium that was awarded the rights to the thirdcellular telephone company in Israel, will be considering futureinvestments in Israel. The .company paid the State NIS. 1.4 billion ...
American International Group Opens Another Company
May 15, 1998 ... American International Group (AIG) the U.S. based insurance andfinancial service company is establishing another insurance companyin Israel. The company will insure mortgage banks and insurancecompanies that provide loans for home mortgages to the retail ...
Canadian Investors Buy 20% Of Meitav Software
May 15, 1998 ... The Toronto Canada Arnon Corporation, making their first investmentin Israel, purchased 20 percent of Meitav Software Systems for $ 1 ...
Compaq Invests In Kardan Technology Ventures
May 15, 1998 ... Compaq Computer corporation the world largest PC manufacture isinvesting $ 3 million in Israel. Compaq is looking for new ...
Tadiran Scopus Wins $ 3 million Contact
May 15, 1998 ... Tadiran Scopus a company that supplies digital video equipment, anda subsidiary of Tadiran Ltd. Israel's largest electronics company,has won a contract to supply its equipment to the Ukrainian SpaceAgency. The equipment will be supplied within the next 4 months ...
Is There Is Oil Down There?
May 15, 1998 ... Isramco, Israel Oil Company, Delek and Naphtha Israel PetoleumCorporation are partners in the Gevim 1 oil well that is beingdrilled near Sderot, a town in the Negev. Isramco US spokesmen saidthat his company has great optimism that this oil well will be a ...
Carmel Olefins Shows Good 1997 Profits
May 15, 1998 ... Carmel Olefins, Israel's largest petrochemical firm reported 1997net profits of NIS 153 million, up 42 percent from 1996. Salesincreased 13 percent to NIS 1,06 billion. Company President MarkWilsker commented that he sees company's profits further benefiting ...
Sonol's Parent Company Up For Sale
May 15, 1998 ... Granite Hacarmel, the parent of Sonol, Israel's third largest oilcompany has been put on the sales block by its parent company,Mashav Initiating and Development Group. Mashav, as a Koor holding,was involved in the sale last year of the controlling interest of ...
Discount Investments Sells IDB Holdings
May 15, 1998 ... Discount Investments has announced the completion of its sale of 9.5percent of its parent company, IDB holdings to New York investmenthouse Goldman Sachs for NIS 282 million Discount was very happy withhe deal saying it was ...
Key Interest Lending Rate Reduced
May 15, 1998 ... The Bank of Israel made its fourth interest rate reduction in asmany months, this time it reduced the discount rate by 0.3 percentto 11.9 percent. In January 1998 the discount rate was 13.4 percent.The central bank's discount rate is now at its lowest since June ...
Owners Of Bank Hapoalim Looking For Strategic Investor
May 15, 1998 ... Bank Hapoalim looking ahead, is trying to get ready for eventualcompetition from international banks who are eyeing the profitableIsraeli banking market. The bank knows that it has only short amountof time before globalization of the banking business brings ...
Banks Asked To Be Straight About Government Mortgages
May 15, 1998 ... The Ministry of Industry and Trade requested the Bank of Israel forits assistance to make sure banks inform customers of the trueeffective interest paid on government backed loans over the loanperiod.This request comes after a complaint was filed with ...
Long Term Savings Negative In April
May 15, 1998 ... The public's net investment in long-term savings plans deposited formore then two years was negative in April 1998. Savers withdrew NIS122 million more than they deposited in April. This compares to apositive ...
Republic Bank Subsidiary Opens Office IN Israel
May 15, 1998 ... RNB Suisse, a subsidiary of Republic National Bank of New York ithas opened a representative office in Tel Aviv. The Safra Group owns ...
Foreign Currency Reserves Up In April
May 15, 1998 ... Israel's foreign currency reserves rose by $ 214 million in April1998 to $ 21.8 billion.It ...
Giltex Communications win Brazilian Contract
May 15, 1998 ... NASDAQ listed Giltex Communications based in Azur, Israel announcedthat its Brazilian subsidiaries won a $ 36 million contract toprovide equipment and services to the Bell-South Corporation and theSafra Group. Bell-South and Safra are constructing mobile phone ...
Vishay Opens New Beer Sheba Factory
May 15, 1998 ... Last month Vishay Israel, a subsidiary of New York Stock Exchangelisted Vishay Inc. opened a new factory in Beer Sheba Israel. Visaybased in Pennsylvania USA has four factories in Israel which producea wide range of electronic components. The newly open factory ...
Ericsson Will Be A Partner
May 15, 1998 ... New York Stock Exchange Swedish telecommunications giant, Ericssonhas won a $ 140 million contract from the Israeli telecommunicationscompany Partner Group for cellular phone network equipment. Ericssonwill equip the group with working stations and switching and ...
GaSonics Invests In Israel
May 15, 1998 ... GaSonics, a San Jose California semiconductor equipmentmanufacturer, has announced that they are opening a research anddevelopment office and customer support facility in Rehovot Israel.GaSonics initially intends to invest $ 10 million in this facility. ...
Elron And On Technology Doing Business
May 15, 1998 ... Haifa based Elron Electronic Industries, which does work in themedical diagnostic imaging, semiconductor, and advanced defenseelectronic fields will pay $ 12 million for network managementsoftware and ...
Dell Computers Signs Buy-Back Agreement
May 15, 1998 ... Dell Computers are not only popular in the United States, but inIsrael too, many Israeli government offices and companies are buyingits' products. Dell has acknowledged the Israeli government'sgrowing buying power for its' products by signing a multi-year buy ...
Tower Semiconductor New Products In Final Production Stage
May 15, 1998 ... Tower Semiconductor, a NASDAQ listed Israeli company is in the finalstage before starting up production of new specialized products(embedded EPROM, mixed signal and image sensor products). These newproducts have required the company to invest $ 4 million in ...
Sun Microsystems Looks To Shine In Israel
May 15, 1998 ... Sun Microsystems has sent a senior executive to Israel to seek outhigh tech and software companies developing innovative productsbased on Sun's Java and Solaris technologies. Sun wants to expandits involvement with Israeli companies because of the advances that ...