Public Sector Puts Brakes on Top 15 Agenda

Executive Summary

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• The TOP 15 Vision requires an episode of significant improvement in Israel's Quality of Life.​

• This document identifies the potential engines of growth for Israel's Quality of Life by analyzing the World Economic Forum's (WEF) 2005-2006 Global Competitiveness Index (GCI). This Index is instrumental in singling-out the brakes and the engines of growth that can bring about a significant improvement in the Quality of Life in Israel.​

• The GCI ranking of Israel as 15th in the overall competitiveness index belies imbalances between the poor competitiveness of Israel's public sphere and its efficient and innovative private sector.​

• Furthermore, the size of Israel's public sector amplifies its economy's exposure to inefficiencies in this sector. Ranking 25 countries according to the combined effect of size of public sector and its level of competitiveness, Israel drops to the bottom of the list.

• The conclusion of this analysis is that the potential for a significant socio-economic leap lies in improving the performance of the public sector, or by reducing its size.​

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Introduction

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• The concept 'Top 15 Vision' ('Top 15') is comprised of the issues and actions involved in achieving a significant socioeconomic advancement ('leapfrog' or 'catch-up episode') that would place Israel among the 15 leading countries in terms of quality of life.

• The Top 15 Agenda includes the following: A rich and textured vision of Israel when it becomes one of the Top 15 countries, identification of engines of growth in quality of life, dealing with Israel's idiosyncrasies such as the security burden or its association with the Jewish world, outlining the required structural changes, designing specific policy, identification of relevant indices, and initiation of public discourse.​

• In this paper, Reut identifies the most powerful agents - public or private - that drive or hinder the Top 15 Vision.​

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