The Jewish Agency’s settlement department plans to stress industrial development in new settlements and old existing ones, it was disclosed today. Department head Raanan Weitz and others met at Rehovot yesterday to discuss the project. Industry will be introduced to veteran villages which are presently devoted exclusively to agriculture and to new settlements which are unable to exist on agriculture alone.
The Jewish Agency will encourage the settlements to establish their own industries in connection with their various parent settlement movements. It will set up and operate its own industries, however, “in vital cases.” The settlement department will provide loans, up to a certain amount, in conjunction with the settlement movements. A department spokesman said that in the last four years it had developed job openings for about 1000 persons but intends to increase the industrial development rate in future years. The plan will be presented to the Jewish Agency Executive and the Zionist General Council for ‘approval.
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