The Israel Government has agreed in principle to opening the field of national industrial development to private capital, chiefly foreign capital, Joseph Saphir, Minister of Communications, today told a meeting of the Industrial and Commercial Club of Tel Aviv.
The Minister reported that the government had come to the conclusion that the national and local communal budgets cannot be expanded to find sufficient funds to finance all essential development projects and is now considering means of raising foreign and local capital. Among the projects which he listed as likely to be opened to private capital are the exploitation of Negev mines and the building of a cross-country railroad.
An American engineer currently advising the Israel Government on various technical problems has suggested that Israel could free itself from dependence upon expensive imported petroleum fuels by developing an alcohol-manufacturing industry. Alexander Taub, noted American motor designer who designed the engine in the British Churchill tank, pointed out that with slight adjustments present gasoline combustion motors could be converted to alcohol combustion. Local manufactured alcohol would be much cheaper than gasoline which now costs about one dollar a gallon, including taxes.
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