Motorola Israel general manager Elisha Yanay told "Globes" that he would not cut salaries at the company. He said that there was no justification for such a measure because rent in Israel has not fallen and loans have remained unchanged.
Yanay said, "We pay employees' salaries in shekels, but our costs are rising. Nevertheless, I believe that there is no place to cut salaries, it isn't the right cure for the crisis, so why fire? I refuse to cut salaries; it's illogical."
Yanay says that the US sub-prime mortgage crisis is not the reason why Israeli exporters are suffering, which he attributes to the shekel's appreciation.
"What has the sub-prime and rice got to do with anything? It's like saying that Israel is affected by Anopheles mosquitoes in the Amazon. The mixing up of problems from all over the world is unrelated to what's happening in Israel. Our main problem is the appreciation of the shekel. In the past 12 months, the shekel has risen by at least 10% against other currencies. We haven’t found oil here, so what's going on?" he asks.
"Israel's high-tech exports, which totaled $20 billion last year, rose by 15% a year over the past four years, and there's no substantial reason why this growth should stop. It's an artificial problem unrelated to the sub-prime. We can continue our great growth."
Yesterday, Yanay told the Knesset Finance Committee, which was discussing how to encourage exports, that the government cannot shake off its responsibility for the future of high-tech exports. He said that the government should come to the aid of the industry which brings in billions of dollars to the country.
Yanay said, "The Bank of Israel and the government should use fiscal measures to bring the shekel-dollar exchange rate to a real value of NIS 4.30/$. Why declare that we won't meet our growth targets? If the shekel were to suddenly stabilize, we wouldn’t have a problem. That's why it's necessary to ensure that the dollar have a real value and not tell ourselves tales about the strong shekel."
Yanay asked for $1 billion compensation for exporters and proposed that Governor of the Bank of Israel Prof. Stanley Fischer buy dollars on the market rather than through internal offsets.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on April 29, 2008
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2008