BUSINESS Affording the best is not the questionwfinding the best is. I Israel Industry Welcomes Outside Investors CARL ALPERT Special to The Jewish News 0 nce upon a time it was extremely diffi- cult to set up private business or industry in Israel or to invest in existing con- cerns. The socialist establish- ment looked upon private capital with proletarian suspicion and hedged the economic potential of the country with a maze of red tape and a bureaucratic jungle. There was truth to the charge that the all-powerful Histadrut was willing to ac- cept new enterprises on con- dition that the Labor Federa- tion be taken in as a partner with a 50 percent or 51 per- cent share. In the intervening years the climate has changed, though it has not been easy to erase widely-held myths, or to alter the patterns of thought of some personnel at this end. Yet the change has indeed been made, and bona fide in- vestors in ever-increasing numbers are beginning to discover that their capital, their expertise and their in- itiative are warmly welcome in Israel. An updated guide published by the Ministry of Industry and Trade (Horizons A first ... Apartment living in a Skilled Nursing Facility For the discriminating person requiring an elegant environment Bortz Health Care Family owned and operated for over 33 years Medicare approved Overlooking two beautiful lakes CALL 363-4121 For our limousine to pick you up for a personal tour of our facility. 6470 Alden Drive, Orchard Lake WHEN TO NOVELL? WHEN TO UNIX? UNIX XENIX NOVELL DOS One approach can cost tens of thousands of dollars less than the other . . . Yet many fac- tors enter into the cor- rect choice! CCR Center for Computer Resources 3895 W. 12 Mile 547-5540 Berkley Contact Jack Parish or David Bitel 68 FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, 1991 DOLL HOUSES TO DREAM HOUSES Start NOW For The Holidays! 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Investors in outlying devel- opment areas receive a full tax exemption for 10 years. There is one address to han- dle all details, the Investment Center, and entrepreneurs from abroad no longer have to run to numerous agencies. Of course the government must first be certain that the pro- posed project is economically sound. How is all this working in practice? Some 150 American companies are already operating in Israel, providing employment, exporting, and making a profit. Cautious economic observers venture that Israel is about to enter a period of economic growth, fueled by the mass immigra- tion of talents and skills, and large-scale government pro- jects. Elmer Winter's Com- mittee for Economic Growth notes that the Ministry of Transportation will invest more than half a billion dollars for road, rail, sea and air transportation projects. A new seaport development will receive a U.S. government grant of $15 million for Haifa, in view of the shipyard's potential to the U.S. Sixth Fleet. Alert investors are already well advanced in their study Leading Israeli firms are already benefiting from the new climate. of the potential in a country which enjoys a free trade agreement with the U.S. and has preferential customs agreements, with con- siderable deductions in customs duties for industrial exports to Austria, Australia, Japan, Finland, Canada, Sweden, Switzerland and Norway. Leading Israeli firms are already benefitting from the new climate. While economic problems faced by a number of Histadrut companies are given wide publicity, this tends to obscure the fact that well-managed private or cor- porate companies are doing well. Net profit of Scitex for the first three months of 1991 is $22.5 million, up 59 per- cent over the same period last year. Africa-Israel Investment had a net profit of $26 million in those three months, up 68 percent. Discount Investment- Corp. profit was $10.2 million, up 110 percent. The list is long and similarly encouraging. Yet several American businessmen with whom I have talked continue to be skeptical. It's the red tape that frightens them more than anything else. The answer comes from Moshe Teri, Director of the Israel In- vestment Center, at 30 Agron St., Jerusalem, who told Elmer Winter: "If any