Also in the audience which filled the main reception room with the President of the State of Israel and Prime Minister, were Minister of Finance Moshe Kahlon , government ministers, Knesset members, past Governors of the Bank of Israel including Karnit Flug, leaders of financial and business sectors, members of Bank of Israel management and its staff, media representatives, family, and friends:  

President Rivlin began his remarks, “Your extensive research into the key areas of interest of the Bank of Israel indicate that you are the right person in the right job at the right time. Welcome. And now, it’s time to get to work.

“We meet here today, perhaps at the beginning of a period of economic and financial tension. Over the years, the leaders of Israel’s economy have guided us calmly and wisely through crises and shocks in the global and local economy and proved the strength and stability of the Israeli economy.” 

“In Israel, the connection between where you were born and the opportunities you have, your income, the quality of education and social services you receive is still too strong. This is painful. It should be something that keeps us awake at night. 

“Too many Israelis are left behind - those in the middle, and those at the bottom. When growth is low, and the middle class is made up of workers who struggle to pay their monthly bills, it will be very difficult for us to bring the lowest earners up towards the middle. The gap between mean and median wages in Israel is amongst the highest of OECD members. 

“Next year there will be elections, but it is important to remember that the Governor of the Bank of Israel is not elected. The Bank of Israel is part of the people and its focus is both on statistics and facts and on those people whose voices are sometimes not heard."

Prime Minister Netanyahu began speaking softly, sounding as if he had a cold, "The steps that we have taken up until now have helped us weather major storms in the past and I am certain that we will also weather the current storm in the capital markets. The Israeli economy is strong and it is creating an important value -- competitive value for goods and services that we want to buy and we are doing so all the time.  

"We have the ability of initiatives and creativity for new goods and services that are among the best in the world and for certain things are the best in the world. We have the ability due to our policy of opening new markets. We have opened huge markets and we are in the advanced stages of negotiating a free trade agreement with China. This will give things that are hard to conceive of. A small slice of a huge market will lift the economy. The global markets are opening.

"Mistakes by bank governors are liable to exact a very heavy price. On the other hand the concern over mistakes must not lead the governor to adopt a policy devoid of risks. Only if the banking system adopts technological innovation and vital reforms can we preserve and even increase growth in the Israeli economy.

"Before you, Governor, are two intertwined choices the realization of which will the national economy in the coming years.

"The first task is to increase competitiveness in the banking system. Israel’s economy, industry and the knowledge-based sector are very competitive, but the banks are much less competitive. There is a high level of concentration. Therefore, in the tension between stability and efficiency, the Governor must move the center of gravity toward greater efficiency because only in this way will the business sector be able to move the wheels of the economy forward.

"The second task is to bring Israel into the new era of technologies that already exists today and in which we excel in creating them and selling them abroad. This will facilitate better access to available credit for all stages and sizes of business, from small to large. We need to ensure access to everyone from the consumer to large companies. This needs to be done responsibly, because we do not want to see a credit bubble here.”

New Governor Yaron, began his remarks, "With your permission, I would like to review the central challenges facing Israel’s economy and the Bank of Israel in the coming years, in the areas of monetary policy, financial stability, growth, and budgetary policy." 

Text of Yaron's speech can be found on Bank of Israel website. 

At the conclusion of the program, all stood for singing of Hatikvah.