London, July 24, IRNA – During the past decade there has been a huge growth in the number of Israeli businesses investing in the UK with the assistance of the British government, British Business and Enterprise Minister Mark Prisk has revealed.
Under the 13 years of rule by the previous Labor government, British financial assistance was provided for a total of 71 foreign direct investment projects from Israel which located or expanded in the UK out of a total of 99 Israeli projects in Britain.
In a written parliamentary reply, Prisk detailed that UK Trade and Investment (UKTI), which came under the joint responsibility of the Business Secretary and Foreign Secretary, sponsored with taxpayers money 57 of the Israeli projects.
Another 15 Israeli businesses were assisted in collaboration between UKTI and one of more regional or devolved development agencies and a further 14 by regional or devolved development agencies alone. Only 26 had no British financial support.
The growth under the previous Labor government showed that there were no Israeli projects during the first three years it was in office and that no financial assistance provided for the first seven Israeli projects in the following two years between 2000 and 2002.
But in the last five years, there were no less that 71 direct investment projects from Israel, including 54 that received British sponsorship with tax payers money.
In 2008-09, some 14 out of 16 Israeli projects received financial assistance either from the UK or development agencies, and last year, all 16 were British sponsored, when Israel moved up to 19th in the top 20 countries investing in the UK.
No figures were provided by Prisk on the amount of assistance given to any single Israeli project only that the UKTI spent a total of approximately £80 million globally on foreign direct investment work in 2009/10.
The only breakdown was that six Israeli projects were located or expanded in the north-East of England and that One North-East development agency provided a total of £1.3 in assistance in addition to unspecified help from UKTI.