Secretary General Gurria: Thank you very much Prime Minister and thank you to all of you for being with us today. I'm delighted to be here with you, as part of the Cabinet. I know that this is a privilege - that very few people in the world have had the privilege of joining you in a Cabinet meeting and I consider it a very great honor both for the OECD and myself.

The adventure starts now. There were three years of hard work in order to finish the accession process - that has been done, but the challenges are still all there and accession to the OECD is about the future of Israel. It's about the future in terms of economics where Israel today is doing a better job than our members. You are growing faster; you have a lower deficit; you have a lower unemployment; lower accumulated debt, and I have to say that the medium term of the world economy and certainly of the OECD member countries is not looking particularly brilliant. We're looking at rather mediocre, medium and long term growth; mediocre high unemployment numbers in all our member countries; high deficits and high accumulated debt.

In all the cases, Israel is doing better, so we have a lot to learn there. There's also the fact that to beat this mediocre, medium and long term scenario, policies have to be put in. The only way to change it, if you are not going to have a surrounding that is going to be very conducive; if you cannot just depend on the foreign market to come out; that means you're going to have to make a stronger effort here inside. We have been looking at this together, analyzing these possibilities. Because clearly the domestic demand, and the strengthening of the cohesion of Israeli society is going to make it possible - and add to this unsatisfactory world scenario.

The other thing is about Israeli society and not only the economy - the Israeli society in a generation has moved a great leap forward. It has changed and is now very much integrated into the world, but first of all it cannot be an island of plenty in an ocean of need. It has to better spill over into the area and the region, but also because when you have very fast movement, what happens is that not all the groups of society can move at the same speed.

And now we have been speaking with the economic and social cabinet. I met at the same table, in the same room to look at how we can do better together, how we can move those social groups that may be lagging behind in terms of integration, cultural integration, economic integration, quality of life that prove challenges for us. We have focused on some of the ultra-Orthodox groups and the Arab-Israeli groups which may not be moving at the same speed and maybe not enjoying at the same evolution, positive evolution, as the rest of Israeli society - how to make that possible in order to make the whole of the country move faster.

The other thing is the question of Israel competitiveness in the world and the issues that have to be addressed - not only in terms of having a successful cutting edge, technological sector or lots of exports in the software side, etc. but also because if we compare to ourselves, than we always are happy, because we are better than last year. We must also compare ourselves to the rest of the world and how the rest of the world is moving - it makes for a more objective look and it's sobering. This morning we had a very productive meeting with Minister of Education Gideon Saar - we had a long breakfast, and it's not going to cost the Minister of Finance too much. And we are going to meet with [Minister of Industry, Trade and Labor] Ben-Eliezer. We're then going to meet with Shraga Brosh, President of the Manufacturers Association of Israel, and we have been meeting with other ministers along the way. We have met with the Knesset in order to push for some of the legislation like anti-bribery, where you really have state of the art legislation.

And now we're looking at things in the financial sector. We're looking at the housing sector. It's a paradox, Mr. Prime Minister. It's one of those problems of success. I suppose you'd rather have that problem than the opposite. Because throughout the world housing is falling and here there is a boom in the prices, and of course, but that is in having other consequences.

And then of course the fact that you have this new-found wealth of gas, where you've always had strategic and security concerns, and also economic dependence on the import of energy sources. Now you're going to have your own source, so maybe you're going to be in the position to export at some point, and the question is how does one plan well for this bonanza.

I'm from Mexico, and I can tell you - you really need to plan very well because there's a lot of scope to make mistakes - to lose the sense of urgency; to lose the sense of scarcity and the fact that you have to every day do better and better and better, but suddenly complacency can be the worst enemy that you can have and that you have to fight against it all the time. But also the whole design of the exploitation and sharing this new-found wealth with all the people of Israel and to maybe remedy many of the things that today you find difficult to balance because the needs are there, but the resources are not. You want to keep a prudent fiscal policy for which we commend you.

So the temptations are obvious, but of course, you have done very well without it and I'm sure you're going to deal very well with it and I think the only advice is: please count on us. We have good stories and bad stories, good experiences and bad experiences, good practices and not so good practices, including the ones of my own country that we can share with you. But the legitimacy of sharing this new-found wealth with the Israeli people is obviously is beyond any expression. Of course it's something which, if nature provided it to you, that is a bonanza that has to be well taken advantage of. There are so many issues of substance, but it is about the future of Israel, and I would please ask you, Mr. Prime Minister and the ministers, to count on the OECD. We are there with you and for you, so please count on us.