Photo by GPO

Honorable Deputy Prime Minister, my friend, Minister of Industry, Trade and Labor, Eli Yishai,
Honorable Government Ministers, Ze’ev Boim and Ariel Attias,
My friend, Mayor Aviram Dahari, who worked so hard to develop Kiryat Gat, and collects a respectable property tax,
Dedi Perlmutter, the Israeli who serves as Executive Vice President of Intel International – it should be understood that this is the largest producer of microchips in the world, and not only are there 6,000 employees here, but some of its best executives around the world are Israelis, and Dedi Perlmutter is the most senior among them,
Mr. Josh Waldman, who represents the Board of Directors in the United States,
My friend, Alex Kornhauser, with whom we began the work to establish this factory – I am happy to see you here,
Ms. Maxine Pasburg, Deputy President of Intel International, Director of Intel Israel and head of the factory – I am very pleased, Maxine, with the list of your titles, but mostly I am pleased that Intel International had enough sense and imagination and daring to appoint a woman without a background in computers, but rather education, to serve as their senior manager in the State of Israel, which is the most successful country in the world in which Intel invests – this should not be forgotten,
My friend, the Director General of the Prime Minister’s Office, and the man who was the genuine driving force behind this partnership between Intel and the Government of Israel – Raanan Dinur,
My friends, heads of the regional councils,
Head of the Lachish Regional Council, Danny Moraviah,
Head of the Shafir Regional Council, Asher Abergil,
Head of the Yoav Regional Council, Rani Traynin,
And last but not least, who I see sitting here with tremendous vigor, Luva Eliav,

I wish to say something to you, I wish to say it to Luva – I had time to whisper it to him – we are going to transform the Lachish region.  He single-handedly established the entire region of Lachish, which was a fallow area.  We, the Government of Israel, are building up the Lachish region and will open it up.  I promise you Luva, you will have the privilege of seeing tens of thousands of Israelis living in the Lachish region, developing it and transforming it into one of the blossoming and prosperous regions in the entire State of Israel.

My dear friends,

In my opinion, the basis for Intel’s success in Israel, perhaps the starting point – and I do not just say this, I say it with great consideration – is the connection between Intel’s research and development centers in Israel.  As you heard from Dedi earlier, there are five R&D centers in the State of Israel, the largest of which is in Haifa, but there are more.  I will tell you something that Dedi did not say, but his boss, Craig Barrett, the CEO of the company, did tell me when he was in Israel and we met.  He said the following words, and I quote exactly – and Maxine and Alex were at that meeting and they cannot forget it.  He said: “Were it not for Intel Israel and Intel’s R&D center in Israel, Intel International would not be able to exist.”  Were it not for the research and development and the innovations in Israel, Intel International could not exist.  He said, “We would be finished”.  Why?  Because before anything else, comes the brains of development, initiative and innovation of the State of Israel and of the Israeli developers.  After that, everything else comes.

I try to sell this model to all the large hi-tech companies in the world.  I tell them: establish R&D centers in Israel.  After they have R&D centers in Israel, something else innovative will be created; then it will be worthwhile for them to establish production centers here, because it is good to have the production center for that product near the research center developing the new product.  It is worthwhile.  This is what happened with Intel, which began with several employees and one crazy man named Dov Forman, who probably could not find parking for his motorcycle and therefore could not come, or maybe he could not land his plane here on the roof, so he could not land.  It started with one crazy person and currently includes over 6,000 employees, and this is only the beginning.

Photo by GPO

I would like to say something else.  I feel very good being here today as a representative of the State of Israel and Government of Israel.  Beyond the personal satisfaction I feel, sitting here with us is the Director General of the Ministry of Finance, Yoram Ariav, who represents the resource, or rather the source of the financial resources the State of Israel invested here through its investment center, with Hezi Tziag and others.  In fact, it should be remembered, this is not a personal matter since I served as Minister of Industry, Trade and Labor and Minister of Finance for a time.  There were others before me.  There were others before me.  What is important – and remember this well – is that the State of Israel will, in the coming years, invest in Intel Israel well over one billion dollars in the framework of grants in order to assist in establishing these plants.  They made an amazing deal, without which there would not be any investors here.  However, let there be no mistake.  We too, despite investing over one billion dollars, also made an amazing deal, since these funds which we invested led to exports by the State of Israel which last year, 2007, brought in over $12.7 billion, not to mention the thousands of job openings for which someone paid their salaries, and income tax was paid on those salaries – and for the 35 years Intel has been working in Israel, the taxes alone yielded profits which were well above the $1 billion we invested in the Intel factory.  In short, this was a good deal.  They made a good deal and we made a good deal, and primarily the State of Israel made an extraordinarily good deal.

I wish to say something else important, which is a message not only to the Intel people.  There are Directors General of so many important offices – I will not repeat them all – including the wife of the Minister of Finance, who is here in her own right (not because she is the wife of the Minister of Finance, but because she is responsible for the State of Israel’s reciprocal purchases, which assists Israeli exports in the amount of billions of dollars), Mrs. Bina Bar-On.  I say to all heads of office who are sitting here, and to Bina, who is responsible for our reciprocal relations.  In one of the discussions I had with the people of Intel, years ago, in which we discussed the possibility of this factory being established, during that same period there was an Intifada, and the representatives of Intel International expressed a certain measure of concern.  The situation is not simple – there are wars, there is terror.  I told them: Intel, you have been in the State of Israel for 35 years. Tell me if once during all those years you have been in Israel, one shipment – one – of products from Israel being delayed in the State of Israel because of the political situation.  She thought for a moment and said: not once.

I tell you, ladies and gentlemen, first of all, we are advancing towards peace.  This is what we want, that there will be no wars at all – not in the South, not in the North, and not in the center.  We are investing, and will continue to invest all efforts.  No matter what, nothing will stop us, this Government which I head, nothing will stop the tremendous efforts we will make to bring about calm, to ensure the security of the residents of the South, and in order to continue the negotiations to bring about peace, which will create a new horizon of hope, development, prosperity and cooperation for the entire State of Israel, in all its regions.  At the same time, we will make every effort to ensure that everyone who invests in Israel will, first and foremost, make a return on their investment so that they will want to continue investing; secondly – help us see a return so that we want to help them more; and thirdly, to provide jobs for Israelis in tremendous numbers and help us to develop, strengthen and firmly establish the prosperous economy of the State of Israel.

This is perhaps a good day, the first of the second half of 2008, to say that in the first half of the year, the Israeli economy grew more than any other economy in the Western world.  You heard correctly – our economy.  Everywhere else, everything is fluctuating.  I know that the exchange rate of the dollar bothers those who export – it bothers me as well.  I hope that it will change, that the dollar will strengthen.  The shekel can, perhaps not be the strongest currency in the world, even if that is the situation today, but as long as the dollar strengthens, the rewards and profits of exports will increase.

We will continue to strengthen and develop the Israeli economy.  We will bring in more investors.  We will help them and they will help us.  We will build a stable economy here, provide employment, develop the cities, ensure security, make peace and bring hope to the people of Israel.

Thank you.