Israel’s program of cooperation with new nations so far has created more than 70 joint enterprises in shipping, transport, hotels, tourism, fishing, agriculture, cooperatives, building and engineering, Moshe Bartur, head of Israel’s permanent mission to the United Nations in Geneva, reported today.
He reviewed Israel’s “Point Four” program in a report to the UN Science and Technology Conference. He cited Israel’s pioneering in “joint companies” based on the principle of “minority participation by the Israeli partner.” He stressed that “the share belonging to the minority partner is transferred to the major and local partner when the enterprise has become a going concern.”
He added that “all of these joint ventures are at the same time serving in the training of technicians in their respective fields, both on the spot as well as in the Israeli partner’s firm actually in Israel.” He called this “the most effective method by which the foreign expert is to hand over gradually his job to the local expert and in fact to be eventually represented by the local expert.”
He suggested some basic principles developing from Israel’s experience in such joint mutual aid programs. One principle, he said, was that such cooperation can be most successful when it extends beyond the “close confines of specialized agencies and their bureaucratic limitations.” He explained it must become a popular movement supported by many groups and institutions of the assisted country, including its trade unions, cooperative movements and institute of learning and research.
A second principle, he told the conference, was that the cooperation of the developing countries among themselves was of vital importance. The poorer in material means that a new nation is, the closer the problems of development is to the daily lives of its people. This makes possible a more fruitful and rewarding joint effort.
Finally, he said, technical assistance and cooperation becomes more effective and valuable when the “donor” and the “receiver” share equally the risk and responsibility of the joint venture. They thus become, he concluded, true partners in the joint creation.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
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.
