The promotion and positioning of the northern region as an attractive metropolis for industry and the Israeli public is constantly on the public agenda. This work was intended to provide tools for formulating an attractive plan for the north, so that it will become an economically and professionally developed metropolis, based on new regional development models and data relevant to the north. The data in this project are based in part on work conducted at the Samuel Neaman Institute for the economic upgrading of the northern region and an analysis of the data. At the end of the process, the outcome was a set of tools for economic-employment policy measures, as well as for formulating priorities and concentrating efforts on a plan that extends over a period of several decades for the north, as follows.
- Definition of the northern region, the Galilee + Haifa Sub-District, as a multi-focal, single metropolis. Only then will it be possible to reach a critical mass that can withstand the Tel Aviv magnet.
- Taking a systemic approach based on a series of steps in various and different fields, which will be integrated and synchronized, while viewing the metropolis as a geographic area that constitutes a single labor market.
- Prioritizing one of the metropolitan areas and formulating a wide range of measures in this area, based on the assessment that such steps will have significant results for initiating processes in the other metropolitan areas as well.
- Selection of the region’s priority will be based on a variety of considerations, including on the one hand the chances of success, and on the other the possibility of realizing the process with as little investment as possible, based on the unique infrastructures and advantages in that region. In this analysis, the southern part of the metropolis, extending from Haifa to Afula (including Nazareth) was identified.
