Articles by February, 2020

A year and three months after he began serving his three years in prison, businessman and former IDB chairman Nochi Dankner is set to go free. This morning, a person who was previously considered the most powerful man in the economy and jailed for securities law offenses At the gate of a prison jail, a prisoner behind bars became a non-suspended prisoner. This, after last Thursday's release from the Ma'asiyahu Prison, approved his request for early release. The decision by the parole committee to order Dankner's release was made after the State Attorney's Office, through Attorney Gabi...

"Accelerating communications infrastructure development will close the gaps between the periphery and the center. This requires telecommunications companies and municipalities to join hands and improve the situation," said Nati Cohen, director of the communications ministry, at a joint conference held by the firm on establishing communications infrastructure in the Bedouin communities in the south. Establishing the communications infrastructure in the Bedouin communities was a low national priority and these communities did not receive the level of infrastructure found in their localities...

The reports of Israeli public companies holding significant activity in China indicate that there is currently no significant impact on business. However, the expected harm is mainly in the tourism sector of Chinese who will not come to Israel. It is estimated that about 24,000 tourists from China will be canceled in the next two months. Most of them spend an average of seven nights per night. This is a loss of close to 170,000 overnight stays in February and march

Afcon Electric Transport, a company owned by Afcon Holdings, is completing another phase of operating the largest public charging network in Israel. Afcon has recently completed the installation of charging stations in the Dan hotel network across the country. In recent months, Afcon has established dozens of fast charging stations in BIG complexes, across the Emek Hefer Regional Council and many kibbutzim nationwide. The hotels participating in the pilot are the Dan Hotels chain: Dan Tel Aviv, Dan Carmel, Dan Panorama Tel Aviv, Dan Eilat, King David and the Link Hotels chain. Udi...

In January 2020, 543,000 Israelis departed abroad - an increase of 10% compared to January 2019. 4% of Israelis departures in January were of Israeli residents living abroad who came for a homeland visit. In January, 29,000 Israeli departures were by land (to Egypt and Jordan). The number of flights abroad was 496,000 - most of them, ie 466,000, departed only once during the month. Also in the other direction, ie tourists entering Israel, an increase was recorded - 308.5 thousand tourists entered Israel in January, an increase of 8% compared to January last year. According to estimates by...

The State of Israel ended January with a budget surplus of NIS 5.9 billion. That's how the Treasury published. Among the reasons for the big surplus - managing the state through a temporary budget and higher than expected tax revenues. According to the Treasury announcement, government spending in January reached NIS 27.7 billion. January's state revenues were pleasantly surprised and reached NIS 33.6 billion, a figure that reflects a nominal increase of 11.9% compared to January 2019. This is a figure that could indicate improvement in economic activity, however, as today's senior deficit...

On February 24-27, Israel will host the world's largest industrial innovation week, the "II4.0" Conference - led by "Start-Up Nation Central" (SNC), Grove's venture capital fund and international consulting firm Deloitte. The conference will discuss machine communication issues, secure production lines and 3D printing and will present lectures, forums and professional panels led by industry executives. Significant international companies are expected to announce new activities to take place in Israel, as well as new collaborations with Israeli companies and startups. Yariv Lotan, SNC's...

The Ministry of Communications has issued a call calling for the removal of public telephone positions in the public space and reducing the obligation to install them. Today there are about 9,500 public landline telephones scattered in the public domain. In comparison, the number of public telephones peaked in 1996 - 27,000. In the last two decades, in parallel with the rise in the use of cell phones, there has been a gradual decline in the use of public phones. Regulated public telephones were established immediately after the establishment of the country's largest localities, with the...

The government approved the construction and housing minister Yifat Shasha Biton's proposal to extend his stay in Israel to 1,700 Chinese construction workers. According to the decision, which is intended to prevent damage to construction and infrastructure projects in Israel. The workers' residence permit will be extended until the end of June 2020 following the postponement of the arrival of new workers from China following the virus. The worrying outbreak in China of the Corona virus that has infested thousands of people and has already taken the lives of hundreds of victims,...

The large gaps between Jews and Arabs in educational attainment are not due to sectoral or cultural differences but to income differences. This is evident from a study published by Nahum Blass of the Taub Center for Policy Studies. It turns out that the big gaps stem mainly because the Arab sector is much poorer than the Jewish sector. When comparing the achievements of the same economic strata, the achievements of the Arabs are compared to the Jews, and in some cases even exceed them. Blass points out that the gap between Jews and Arabs in the Mitzvah and even adulthood tests has narrowed...