MEET DAN BARISH
Turkey Wants
Israeli Arms Deal
Jerusalem (JPFS) — Turkey
wants Israeli cooperation in
Ankara's large-scale defense pro-
grams in tanks and gunboats to
offset European and American
objections to arms sales, a senior
Turkish official said.
Gen. (ret.) Sitki Orun, techni-
cal adviser to the Turkish Armed
Forces Foundation, said Turkey
needs Israeli contractors to ful-
fill its $150 billion plan over the
next 25 years to modernize the
military. This includes produc-
ing new battle tanks, helicopters,
jets and ships.
"This year, most of the coun-
tries are decreasing military bud-
gets," Gen. Orun said, "but not
Turkey. It has increased its mil-
itary budget by 2-3 percent, from
9 percent to 11 percent of the gov-
ernment budget."
Gen. Orun will be conducting
meetings in his effort to recruit
Israeli companies to participate
in Turkey's defense industry and
civil aviation fair, called IDEF,
in September. The fair is spon-
sored by the government defense
holding company Turkish Armed
Forces Foundation.
The Turkish general said his
government will examine the
Merkava tank as part of its pro-
gram to produce 800 battle tanks
in a deal estimated at $3.2 bil-
lion. The Turks plan to begin co-
production of a new tank after
the year 2000, preferring this to
outright acquisition.
Other countries that will be
approached as a potential con-
tractor include the United States,
South Korea, Germany, Britain
and France.
Elscint Wins
Jordan Contract
Jerusalem (JPFS) — Elscint Ltd.
has won a contract to sell a $1.5
million magnetic resonance
imaging system to the Jordan-
ian government, becoming the
first Israeli company to sell a ma-
jor piece of high-tech equipment
there, the firm announced.
The MRI system will be in-
stalled in Amman's Al-Basheer
Hospital.
The Haifa-based company,
which develops and manufac-
tures a host of nuclear medicine
imaging, ultrasound, mammog-
raphy and computerized tomog-
raphy systems, beat out Toshiba,
Philips, Siemens and GE for the
tender.
While Jordan's MRI market is
considered by experts to be rela-
tively small, company represen-
tatives said that the
ramifications of winning the bid
extend beyond financial consid-
erations.
"There are two aspects to the
deal," said Yuval Yanai, Elscint's
CFO. "There's the commercial
one for Elscint. And since we are
all Zionists there is also the hope
that this will help other Israeli
companies to sell in Jordan,
which has never before pur-
chased a significant piece of high-
tech equipment from Israel."
Mr. Yanai also said that the
sale of the company's top-of-the-
line Prestige MRI system, which
has research and development
applications as well as clinical
ones, also could lead to greater
collaboration between Israeli and
Jordanian doctors and hospitals.
Mr. Yanai said that Elscint's
sales for 1996 are expected to to-
tal $310 million, while projec-
tions for 1997 indicate a decrease
in profitability margins due to in-
creased international competi-
tion. Elscint has been growing at
an annual rate of 10-20 percent.
Israeli Hotel
Profits Are Down
Jerusalem (JPFS) — According
to figures the Israel Hotel Asso-
ciation released recently, prof-
itability dropped 10-15 percent
in 1996, compared to the previ-
ous year, a drop that has contin-
ued for the past three years.
There has been an overall
three-year decrease since 1993
of about 35 percent.
Tourism from abroad dropped
sharply during the course of
1996, with up to 20 percent few-
er tourist stays during the later
part of the year, and a yearly de-
crease of 6 percent compared to
1995.
Hotel Association director Avi
Rosental said that last year ho-
tels showed a $1.2 billion
turnover, with $600 million of
that coming from incoming
tourism. He pointed to the sharp
increase in the number of nights
spent by Israelis in local hotels,
which jumped by 12 percent in
comparison with the previous
year.
Despite the slump, which he
attributed to "a combination of
geopolitical factors," about 20,000
hotel rooms were either in the
planning or building stage, bring-
ing the Israeli total up to about
50,000.
The optimism, he said, was
based on the Middle East peace
process and expectations for
waves of incoming tourists to
mark Israel's 50th anniversary
in 1998 and the jubilee of Chris-
tianity in 2000.
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