​ (Communicated by the Prime Minister's Media Adviser)
 
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, today (Monday, 9 July 2018), attended a meeting of the Knesset Interior Committee which approved the reform in business licensing.
 
The reform was led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Interior Minister Aryeh Deri and was submitted for approval to the Knesset Interior Committee, chaired by MK Yoav Kisch.
 
The reform is a main component of the government's policy to reduce regulation and thereby save the economy many resources. Approximately 100,000 businesses will benefit from the reform.
 
Under the reform, the licensing of small and intermediate businesses will change to the declarative method. A business owner who declares that the requirements have been met will be able to continue to operate. Should the business owner not be contacted by the regulators within a period of time determined by law, he/she will receive a license automatically. Enforcement will also be increased such that violations of the law will be swiftly punished.
 
Prime Minister Netanyahu:
 
"This is a great day because this is a very major reform. This is good news to hundreds of thousands of businesses in Israel. It is a revolution that will affect hundreds of thousands of business owners in Israel.
 
I received IMF data according to which Israel has surpassed the average per capita income and the reason is because we have led a free economy here. If we did not do this we would be in a completely different situation. We have turned Israel into a free economy and thus everything has begun to flourish.
 
The main effort is to reduce regulation. There is over-regulation in Israel. In opening businesses in general, and small businesses in particular, things would be delayed due to regulation. Because of this problem, I decided to establish a ministerial committee under my chairmanship. I do not head many ministerial committees, but I decided to head this one because this is a great impediment. In two years, we have raised Israel from 25th to 17th place. Our intention is to reach the top decile."