IMI Privatization is Underway

Director General of Israeli Ministry of Defense, Dan Harel, has signed an agreement allowing the privatization of the defense company. Harel: “This is a national-level strategic move”

IMI Privatization is Underway

Chairman and General-Director of IMI with the Prime Minister's Office Director-General (Photo: IMI)

Director-General of Israeli Ministry of Defense, Dan Harel, has signed, after protracted negotiations, the agreement which will allow the privatization and selling of IMI. The agreement, led by the Government Companies Authority and signed, as well, by the Israeli Ministry of Finance, will enable the selling of the company and the evacuation of grounds in Ramat Hasharon in favor of residential construction.

During the years of negotiations, the Ministry of Defense endeavored to end the affair, and even took upon itself a significant undertaking for a future purchase, of hundreds of millions of NIS a year, even under budgetary cutbacks and the budget cuts it has sustained.

As announced by the Ministry of Defense, its men will lead the coordination, in conjunction with all relevant government offices, of the evacuation of the Company's factories from the country’s center, including civil engineering of the site to which IMI is destined to move (Ramat Beka South). In this context, a primal agreement to market and evacuate IDF bases from the central Israel was signed; establishing the immediate tasks, start with the move of the “Keren HaKirya Complex” in Tel Aviv and of territories of hundreds of acres from Zerifin.

Director General of the Ministry of Defense, Maj. Gen (res.) Dan Harel, said with the signing of the agreement that "the IMOD was committed to the privatization of IMI, and took on substantial undertaking of procurement of ammunition, enabling the privatization of IMI in the near future. This is a national-level strategic move, which includes, alongside the selling the company (which will benefit the country’s fund), the evacuation of large grounds in the center of the country, in favor of the construction of thousands of housing units and easing the housing crisis, as well as moving a large factory to the peripheral area, which would generate hundreds of new job positions".