Government appoints Eyal Rosner as head of national initiative to reduce dependency on oil. Minister Landau: Natural gas fuels are on way

Calcalist
Published: 06.02.12

The government approved Sunday the appointment of Eyal Rosner as director of a national initiative to develop technologies that reduce the global use of oil in transportation. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that “The government is working to encourage the development of technologies that will reduce our dependency on oil.”

A dedicated team led by the head of national economic council Prof. Eugene Kandel formulated the guidelines for the national program to encourage both academic research and business entrepreneurship to examine alternatives for the use of oil.

The program was approved by the government in 2011. It was budgeted ay NIS 1.4 billion ($365 million) for 10 years, with the purpose to invest in the development of new oil-replacing technologies.

Prof. Kandel revealed to the ministers that more than 100 alternative energies start-up companies are active in Israel today, in addition to 100 university-based research groups.

Infrastructure Minister Uzi Landau said his ministry is already encouraging research and development of natural gas fuels, hoping to present their results by the end of the year.

Rosner (46) was a naval officer, and have degrees in economy and business from Tel Aviv University. Earlier this week he was a group leader in the Harvard Business School CEO Workshop. Between 2003 and 2007 Rosner was the CEO of the Borovich Mozes Group.

Tomer Avital and Lior Gutman contributed to this report

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