Israel has received significant aid in the development of its economy in the last seven years from 150 internationally known experts sent to the country by the United Nations Expanded Program of Technical Assistance. During the same period, the UN’s Technical Assistance program sent 398 Israelis to foreign countries on fellowships providing training in their special fields. Altogether, the Technical Assistance set-up has spent a total of nearly $2,800,000 on its work in Israel.
These facts, among others–showing not only what UN Technical Assistance did for Israel, but also how Israel aided the world organization’s technical assistance programs in other countries–were summarized here today by the United Nations on the eve of sending a new technical assistance director to Israel. The new appointee is Eric Ward, of Melbourne, Australia, who will take up on November the post of Technical Assistance Resident Representative in Israel.
A new UN project just instituted, according to the report, is the formation of a 12-member Technological Advisory Board which, in the future, will screen all Israel development projects and help determine priorities for “every new public or semi-public enterprise in industry and the exploitation of natural resources.” The board is composed of seven Israel economists and foreign experts.
The UN report refers to the Negev Desert and the influx of immigrants into Israel as two of the country’s major problems. The report states:
The Negev is alternately Israel’s hope and her despair. Still almost barren, it supports no more than 10 percent of the population, and its agricultural promise will be fulfilled only at the cost of large-scale irrigation works. Its promise of natural resources is already beginning to be fulfilled with strikes of oil, copper and phosphates.
“Immigration is also a double-edged sword for Israel. In one way, the influx of people from East and West has meant a harvest of skills and energies vital to the development of the new State. Many of the immigrants, however, have come in penniless and lacking a trade; they must be trained to play a role in the country’s growth.”
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
