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Representing Israel in International Institutions
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The Bank of Israel represents the state in the financial institutions of which
Israel is a member. These include:
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The International Monetary Fund (IMF);
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In the World Bank group of institutions:-The International Bank for
Reconstruction and Development (IBRD); the Multilateral Investment
Guarantee Agency (MIGA); the International Finance Corporation (IFC); the
International Development Agency (IDA);
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The Inter-American Development Bank (BID);
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The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD).
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Since 1954 Israel has been a member of the IMF and the World Bank. It also
joined the Inter-American Development Bank, as a non-regional member, in
1976, and, in 1991, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.
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As a member of the IMF, Israel is visited every year by a group of the Fund's
economists, who compose a comprehensive report on Israel's economy. The
report is discussed by the Fund's Executive Board. Israeli advisers engage in
providing technical assistance which the Fund extends to various countries.
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Israel, as an industrialized country, with a relatively high per capita income, is
not eligible for credit from either the World Bank or the regional banks
established to further the development of specific regions. As a shareholder,
however, it takes a keen interest in the activities and policies of these
institutions.
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Israel's membership of international development institutions grants Israeli
firms the right to submit tenders for projects financed by these institutions.
The Bank of Israel collates the material on the projects financed by
development banks, from planning to implementation, maintains contact with
Israeli firms which are interested in competing for projects, encourages them
to participate in the tenders, and helps them with information and guidance.
Each year Israeli companies do in fact participate in large international
projects.
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One of the spheres in which Israel has great potential to participate in
international projects is the export of know-how and technology. Israel's
human capital is one its most important economic resources, and over the
years a great deal of knowledge in many fields, some of it of a very
specialized nature, has been accumulated. The international institutions in
which Israel is a member offer projects totaling some $ 38 billion a year
(based on loans authorized for 1998).
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One of the most efficient ways of bringing Israeli know-how to the attention of
the international financial institutions is via special funds acting in concert with
the institutions, and making their use conditional on the employment of Israeli
consultants. The Bank of Israel has active funds for financing the work of
Israeli consultants via the following multilateral financial institutions: BID,
EBRD, IFC, and IBRD.
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The Bank of Israel is in regular contact with the international financial
organizations with regard to such matters as voting, hosting professional
delegations, participation of Israeli experts in professional delegations to
various countries, the provision of data for their publications, receiving
material from them and distributing it to interested parties in Israel, etc. The
active involvement of the State of Israel, through the Bank of Israel, in
international financial institutions helps strengthen its ties with economic
policymakers all over the world, and promotes Israel's integration in the
international forums which discuss international economic coordination.
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In recent years the Bank of Israel has become actively involved in the
international effort to assist countries that previously had centrally planned
economies as they undergo the transition to becoming market economies.
Staff members of the Bank of Israel have participated in technical assistance
missions of the IMF to the countries of the former Soviet Union.
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In 1997, Israel joined the World Bank International Development Association
(IDA), which grants credit on easy terms to about 80 of the poorest emerging
countries. In addition to gaining entry for Israeli firms into a market for tenders
worth some $ 6 billion a year, this was an important step from the aspect of
Israel's image, as it gave expression to Israel's status as an industrialized
country.
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About the Bank of Israel