User:Refael Benvenisti

Refael (Rafi) Benvenisti is a co-chairman of IPCRI. He was a Senior Adviser to the World Bank - International Finance Corporation (IFC) - Foreign Investment Advisory Service (FIAS) on Private Sector Development and Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). In this capacity he advised more than 35 governments and investment promotion institutions in Asia, Eastern Europe, Latin America, Oceania and Africa on foreign investment promotion issues in 1984 - 2005.

In the years 1998-2001 he was Senior Adviser to the Minister of Regional Cooperation Mr. Shimon Peres. In this capacity he initiated and promoted many regional and bilateral projects among them Joint Industrial Estates, Joint Water and Sewage projects, the Red Sea Dead Sea Conduit (the Peace Conduit) and others.

Formerly Mr. Benvenisti was in the years 1993 to 1998 a special adviser to the Minister of Finance of Israel; a member of the Inter Ministerial Task Force for the promotion of regional projects in the Middle East; and the head of the Israel Delegation to the Regional Economic Development Working Group (REDWG) Committees for: The Jordan Rift Valley region (JRV), the South East Mediterranean region (SEMED), and the Taba, Eilat, Aqaba Macro area (TEAM). Mr. Benvenisti was an active participant in all the MENA (Middle East North Africa) summits since the first one in Casablanca in 1994 and was a member of their steering committees.

Benvenisti was a staff member of the IFC (1972-1975 and 1984-1989), and the Executive Director of the Israel Investment Authority (1976-1984). In this last capacity he assisted in the take-off of the hi-tech industries in Israel in the late 1970s and early 1980s and the establishment of the semiconductors industry in Israel. In the years 1993 to 1998 Mr. Benvenisti was the Chairman of the Board of the Economic and Cultural Enterprises Development Corporation for the State of Israel Employees.

Benvenisti studied Economics, Business Administration and Geography in the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and the George Washington University in Washington DC. He is now a research student for PhD in Economic History in the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

The co-editor of the "Development Options for Regional Cooperation" (1994), "Development Options for Cooperation: The Middle East/East Mediterranean Region” (1995). Mr. Benvenisti also authored numerous reports on Private Sector development and investment promotion issues in developing countries.