To truly support Israeli hi-tech, the scientist's budget must be at least NIS 400 million larger

says the chief scientist at TMT, Dr. Eli Ofer. "In order for Israel to continue to grow, it is necessary to double the scientist's budget in the long term to the order of 2.5 billion shekels," Ofer said at a special meeting of the Knesset's science committee, which dealt with cuts in its budget ● "The cuts cause indescribable damage to the growth of the economy," he warned

Avi Blizovsky, The People editor, DailyMaily

The event took place on 10/10/2007 and the news was published the next day in the Daily Mail newsletter

MK Benny Alon, Chairman of the Knesset's Science and Technology Committee (right) and Dr. Eli Ofer, Chief Scientist at the TMT Ministry, yesterday at the emergency hearing in Jerusalem

"In order to truly support Israeli high-tech, the scientist's budget must be at least 400 million shekels larger," said yesterday (Wednesday), the chief scientist at the Ministry of Science and Technology, Dr. Eli Ofer, in an emergency discussion held in the Knesset's Science and Technology Committee. According to Dr. Ofer, the chief scientist's budget should initially return to its level in 2000 - about 1.7-1.6 billion shekels, compared to the Treasury's proposal in the 2008 budget, i.e. only 1.3 billion shekels. In the future, Ofer said, we should even strive to double the budget to 2.5 billion shekels.

The chief scientist added that the cuts cause indescribable damage to the growth of the economy, because the government participates at lower levels in projects - 20-30% instead of 50%, and many projects are postponed due to lack of budget. "Any project like this, which may become a large hi-tech company, dissolves or moves abroad," said Dr. Ofer, "and in any case - the Israeli economy loses." Ofer warned that if the cuts continue, the fate of the scientist's budget will be the same as the fate of the investment center's budget, which has deteriorated.

MK Benny Alon, chairman of the committee, said that the committee headed by him will place on its agenda and at the top of the priorities in its activity, the changing of the position of science and technology - both in the public media and in the hands of government decision makers. "Public discussion and general mobilization are needed to prevent further cuts in R&D budgets. We must provoke a public response to stop the cuts and increase the budget."

The representative of the budget department at the Treasury, Jacky Barkai, said in response to Dr. Ofer's words, that it should be acknowledged that the budget remains more or less at its level, because the Treasury also believes that it is important, although he called for getting along with what is available, "everyone Always want to add. I don't know anyone who likes to be cut," he stated. According to him, the funds should be allocated to companies at the beginning of their journey - and to small companies and not to large companies.

"The treasury did not meet its obligations"
Ofer, and other participants in the meeting, accused the Ministry of Finance, for not meeting the commitments from 2005 to gradually increase the budget by 300 million shekels, and every year they found a different pretext, to cut back the supplement they supposedly gave him, they said. The main reason for the cut is the effect of the horizontal budget cuts, which reach 100 million shekels per year, and all the participants, with the exception of the finance representative, demanded that the scientist's budget be removed from the list of ministries where horizontal cuts are made. According to the scientist, money should be added to the budget of the incubators, and the large companies, which serve as "generators" for start-ups and pay royalties, which make up a significant percentage of the scientist's budget, should not be discriminated against. He added that the situation must be restored, because if on average 20 years ago 34% of requests were granted (in money, not in number of requests), today it is only 19% of them. This, he explained, means the rejection of quite a few successful projects.

Yehuda Segev, CEO of the Manufacturers' Association, warned that if the budgetary balance points are violated, a large part of the R&D will be transferred abroad, and after that - production lines will also be transferred. Segev also called on the Treasury to comply with the agreement signed with the chief scientist and the industrialists' association in 2005, after failing to comply with it in the past two years, and to increase the scientist's budget by NIS 500 million.

The Director General of the Ministry of Taxation, Yishai Maimon, called for the R&D budget to be tied to GNP, because it is the main factor in GNP growth. "The export data from the first half of 2007, according to which the rate of growth in high-tech exports is starting to decrease, should worry us," he said, "because this means that so far we have prospered thanks to past investments in R&D."

"Return on investment 50 times"
The outgoing chairman of the National Research and Development Council (NRC), Dan Zaslavsky, said that an investment in R&D returns to the economy 50 times, and that the government - instead of encouraging this, only cuts R&D budgets. For example, he pointed out, when he served as the chief scientist at the Ministry of Energy in the 80s, his budget was 20 million dollars, and today his corresponding budget at the Ministry of Infrastructure - stands at a much lower amount - only XNUMX million shekels. "The treasury boys slaughter a hen that lays golden eggs, and don't even eat its meat, but only show off its feathers," he said.

Shlomo Wax, CEO of the Electronics and Software Industries Association, accused the Treasury of double-tonguing: "On the one hand, he glorifies the high-tech industry, and on the other hand, he violates his commitment from 2005, and denies the chief scientist a budget of NIS 300-400 million per year The industry will flee Israel."

Moshe Ortes, a member of the research committee in the Office of the Chief Scientist, said that out of the number the Treasury is proud of, spending 4.5% of GDP on R&D - the real rate the government spends on industrial R&D is 0.08%. "It is enough for it to be 0.9% like in 2000 - and the situation will improve", he said.

"Transformation companies for production in the east"Itzik Zion, the CFO of the telecom company ECI, who until recently held this position at Motorola Israel, said that the deterioration in the conditions of the scientist's grants, and the need to repay them at an increasing rate, will mean that companies will not use the scientist's budgets for research and development projects. He explained that this means that they will not produce the development fruit in their factories in Ofakim (ECI), or in Arad (Motorola) - but in China, because they will have no obligation to do so. Moreover, he warned, even companies headquartered in Israel are outsourcing development.

Other speakers at the committee were Rena Pridor, the manager of the greenhouse project, who accepted the cut, despite the increase in needs: "Investment of shekels against shekels of the owners of the privatized greenhouses"; Shlomo Gerdman, chairman of the Ra'anana conference, who said that the R&D budgets return immediately that year, in the form of income tax paid by workers recruited for the projects. Dan Wilensky, formerly the chairman of Applied Materials Israel, who said that multinational companies in Israel are responsible for exporting a billion dollars and employ 5,000 workers, therefore, he noted, the government must create continuity in the decision-making process in order to increase the confidence of the owners of the large companies; Dr. Moshe Oron, CEO of the hi-tech company Kilolmeda Technologies, warned that China and India are increasing the training of engineers to 450 people a year in each country, and Russia is now taking care of the return of children of people who left the Soviet Union at the time and studied in the West. Whereas in Israel, said Oron, instead of encouraging hi-tech as they do in these powers - they cut back.