The Knesset passed the first reading of the new 1,478,000,000-pound ($812, 900, 000) budget last night and immediately began a second reading in an effort to complete the debate before the start of the new fiscal year April 1.
The total budget approved in the first reading is 142, 000, 000 pounds ($78, 100, 000) higher than the original draft. The increase was created by the higher immigration absorption needs involved in the new exodus from Rumania and other East European countries. Another 50, 000, 000 pounds ($27, 500, 000) is expected from Jewish Agency participation in providing housing for the newcomers and will be added before the second reading is completed, Knesset sources said.
Meanwhile, the Israel Treasury reported today that in the first nine months of the 1958-59 fiscal year a budget deficit of 74, 000, 000 pounds had been accumulated. This represented about 10 percent of the total nine-month portion of the budget.
A proposal for the convening of a Jewish assembly to launch an investors’ movement which would operate on a large scale to bring to Israel more investment capital and industrial experience was, in the meantime, made here today by Pinhas Sapir, Minister of Trade and Industry.
Mr. Sapir made the proposal in Parliament, where he asked for a special budget allocation that would be used by his Ministry for the purpose of organizing the assembly. According to the plan, the investors’ movement would be on a scale corresponding to the United Jewish Appeal and the Israel Bond Organization.
“We need Jewish energy, Jewish capital, knowledge and industrial experience,” Mr. Sapir told the Parliament. Pointing out that industrial output last year totalled a value of 1,700,000,000 pounds ($935,000,000) as against 1,500,000,000 pounds ($825, 000, 000) in 1957, the Minister said that Israel itself is already making every effort to build industrial output.
Mr. Sapir reported that government loans promised to approved industries increased last year by 13, 000, 000 ($7, 150, 000) in comparison with 1957. Despite a decrease in world prices, he said, last year’s exports rose above the value of the exports sent out in 1957, reaching in 1958 a total of $340, 000, 000.
The Minister stated that industry in Israel, which had been geared primarily to production of consumer goods, is now being centered primarily on such production as machinery for production of metals, foodstuffs and paper. He announced that his Ministry is now planning the establishment of a credit-rating service similar to a service like that provided by Dun and Bradstreet. Such a service, he said, would be found valuable by potentail investors.
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