Israel would prefer to help develop the Middle East together with the Arabs, Dr. Y. Foerder, chairman of the Bank Leumi Le-Israel said yesterday at a luncheon at the Bankers Club here. “We would be willing to train the Arabs, not only in banking, but also in technological fields, as we are doing on a large scale in Africa,” he declared. “This would give us greater satisfaction than military victories.”
About 100 businessmen, bankers and banking officials attended the luncheon given by the First Israel Bank and Trust Co. of New York, an affiliate of Bank Leumi. Stressing that commercial banks in Israel are independent of the Government, Dr. Foerder compared the banks and economies of the other countries in the Middle East, including those which have nationalized the foreign banks. Egypt, the largest country, might have been expected to lead in Arab banking, Dr. Foerder said, but “the nature of its regime and consequently its chronic lack of foreign exchange have long been restrictive factors in Egyptian banking.”
Beirut, he noted, an Arab stronghold of free enterprise, has emerged as the leading financial center of the Arab world. Even after the Intra-Bank affair, he said, and the controls imposed subsequently, Lebanon still has more than 80 registered banks. International liquidity concentrated in the central banks in Israel is $715 million, as compared to $281 million in Lebanon, or $196 million in Egypt, and $30 million dollars in Syria, Dr. Foerder said.
Libya and the Gulf sheikdoms are other examples of oil-rich centers, but so far only Kuwait has begun to challenge Beirut in the field of banking, he said. Kuwait, with its small population, has a gross national product per capita of $3,290, as compared to $1,280 in Israel, $480 in Lebanon and $267 in Egypt. The banker declared that the percentage of its gross national product which Israel has to spend for defense is out of all proportion, and the expenses are increasing. “Everything possible must be done to secure peace in the Middle East and to utilize the limited resources for more productive purposes,” Dr. Foerder said. “Countries which receive armament without counter value pay the highest price that human beings can pay – they give up their freedom,” he asserted.
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