Finance Minister Pinhas Sapir announced today that 540 Jewish business and industrial leaders from all parts of the world had confirmed plans to attend an international economic conference opening here April 1. The conference, for which plans were announced last year by Premier Levi Eshkol, also will be attended by 150 Israeli leaders in private industry, the Government and the Histadrut, Israel’s labor federation. The conclave will last five days.
Mr. Sapir made his announcement at a press conference that was also addressed by the Minister of Trade and Industry, Zeev Sharef and Dr. Yaacov Herzog, director general of the Prime Minister’s Office. The Prime Minister’s economic conference will consider economic and industrial trends in Israel over the next ten years.
Mr. Sharef said there would be a meeting of young businessmen, mainly from the United States, prior to the main conference opening. He stressed the importance of “free and open dialogue” between businessmen and said that the conference will also give Israeli businessmen an opportunity to air complaints they may have about business conditions in Israel or bureaucratic interference with free enterprise. Dr. Herzog said background material had been sent to all participants abroad. A list of their names will be published in two weeks, he added.
Mr. Sapir indicated that the conference might lead to the establishment of a permanent body. He said that great interest in the forthcoming conference was demonstrated by Jewish businessmen everywhere he went on his recent tour to the United States, the Far East, Australia and New Zealand.
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