2018: foreign companies exercised reciprocal transaction that totaled about $ 4 billion

In the coming years, government agencies are expected to contract with many foreign companies through 100 infrastructure and energy tenders, whose total value is estimated at NIS 200 billion.
The Ministry of Economy said today that the call made by Minister Cohen to his colleagues in the government that the need to require government-awarded companies to implement reciprocal procurement in these auctions stems from the evasion of government entities from the obligation on foreign suppliers to reciprocate in the Israeli economy.
During the cabinet meeting, the head of the Industrial Cooperation Authority and the head of the Foreign Investment Unit in the Ministry of Economy, Ziva Eiger, gave details of the scope of procurement made in the Israeli economy in recent years.
From the data presented by Eiger to government members, in 2018 the interactions made by foreign companies in the country totaled about $ 4 billion, after they contracted with 1065 Israeli companies. About 235 of the Israeli companies operate in the periphery, and about 330 of them are SMEs.
An analysis by the Manufacturers Association and presented to Cohen before the government today revealed that any $ 1 billion reciprocal transaction is expected to contribute $ 3.4 billion to the Israeli economy. There, they warned that the cancellation of the purchasing obligation would lead to transactions abroad at the expense of Israeli industry, losing much potential product.
Minister of Economy and Industry Eli Cohen called on the government meeting to continue to apply the reciprocal purchase obligation from Israeli industries in the framework of the large infrastructure tenders that the state is expected to promote over the next few years.
Cohen says applying a sweeping reciprocal purchase obligation in these auctions will return NIS 74 billion to the Israeli economy.
Reciprocal procurement is a procedure whereby the state requires foreign companies and suppliers from which it purchases services or equipment to undertake a procurement in a certain percentage of the volume of the industry's transaction in the country.

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