Israel Minister Addresses American Technion on Skilled Manpower

Pinhas Sapir, Minister of Finance of Israel, who arrived in the United States for a brief visit that will include conferences with United States officials on food surplus sales and other forms of economic aid to Israel, last night emphasized Israel’s need for skilled technical manpower.

Addressing the annual dinner of the American Technion Society at the Hotel Americana, Mr. Sapir said that “we must turn our skills and our inventive ability into the production of goods and services which will compete in the world markets” and this requires “the training of skilled manpower for the efficient use of our resources and means of production.”

The Israel leader, noting that Israel’s industrial growth has been “healthy,” emphasized that “industrial development needs more than capital — it requires skilled manpower. In the age in which we live,” he added, “only the most advanced scientific and technological skills can assure us the supremacy we need to survive in a competitive world.”

Maurice M. Rosen, president of the American Technion Society, who presided at the dinner, announced that a large building containing numerous classroom stand furnished with advanced audio-visual teaching equipment, will be constructed on the campus of the Technion on Mount Carmel and will bear the name of the late Siegfried Ullmann, who was a director of the Society. Prior to his death, Mr. Ullmann had pledged to donate the sums necessary for the construction and equipment of the new building, which will be erected at a cost of “well over $1,000,000.”

Alexander Goldberg, who assumed the presidency of the Technion six months ago, announced that “within five to seven years, the Technion would double its student body from 4,300 to over 8,000” in order to meet fully the urgent requirements of “Israel’s burgeoning industry.” He also reported that the Israel Government had pledged its “utmost support to the speedy development of the Technion.”