New Initiative to Encourage Vehicle Imports through Eilat Port

The Finance Committee, led by Hanoch Milvitzki, held a joint follow-up meeting yesterday with the Special Committee for Strengthening and Developing the Negev and Galilee, led by Oded Forer, on the topic of 'The Impact of the War Situation on the Activity of Eilat Port'. In response to the committee's demand last week, the Ministry of Transport presented a plan, largely agreed upon by the Ministry of Economy, to resume activity at Eilat Port, with the Ministry of Finance also expressing its agreement.

The main points of the plan include: state participation in additional maritime transport costs for a period of up to three months - until the beginning of 2026, a guarantee of the arrival of four vehicle ships per month at Eilat Port for three months, with partial state funding of half a million dollars per ship, up to a maximum of 21 million shekels.

In parallel, an order will be promoted to import vehicles from the East through Eilat Port, for a period of half a year or until the end of the Houthi threat and the opening of the Bab al-Mandab Straits. If the shipping companies do not meet the target of four ships per month, the state will announce in advance its intention to promote the import order, alongside additional steps to reduce congestion at Mediterranean ports and give priority to vital cargo over vehicles.

A representative of the Ministry of Finance stated at the beginning of the discussion that he received the plan about an hour ago, and that the budget cost was not presented in the previous discussion, and that they intend to promote the plan, and also to assist budgetarily after they sit down for a discussion with the professional entities in the Ministry regarding the budgetary cost.

The Ministry of Economy stated that they support the plan, and that in their opinion there is no need for the part that adds the import order.

The Competition Authority stated that imposing an import order could harm competition.

The CEO of Eilat Port, Gideon Golbar, called not to wait three months to impose the import order if necessary, and that without the threat of an order or without the order itself, the importing companies will not renew their arrival.

It was later discussed that there are workers from among the workers of Eilat Port whose temporary employment period ended in recent days, and the committee asked the port management for an update on whether it intends to re-employ them as was done with previous workers.

Oded Forer, Chairman of the Special Committee for Strengthening and Developing the Negev and the Galilee, said: 'This is not a big economic event, there is no need to drag another week and another week'.

The Chairman of the Committee, Hanoch Milvitzki, summed up the discussion: 'I will ask for an update from the Ministry of Transport on the progress, I also ask that on December 24 we hold another discussion, we want to see how it is progressing, whether we need to apply the import order or not. I ask the port owners' representative to update us if there is a delay in implementing the plan, and according to the statement of the Ministry of Finance that they will take care of this plan, I believe that it will be implemented, if there are delays I ask for an update and also an update regarding the employment of the workers as mentioned. We hope that from here we are going on a better and more correct path for Eilat Port, we will not leave this until we see that it is happening and there is a solution we will continue with this issue.'