Prime Minister’s Office Director-General Harel Locker on Wednesday, 26 Marcheshvan, informed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of his desire to step down after three years in office.

Locker, who came to the public service from the business sector, became PMO Director General in 2011. He coordinated government staff work on various socio-economic issues and represented Prime Minister Netanyahu on these issues vis-à-vis ministers, ministries, local authority heads, foreign investors and the business sector. Locker worked to create growth engines, develop the periphery and advance macroeconomic reforms. As PMO Director General, he was the address for arbitration, clarification, bridging gaps and removing impediments in the work of the government.

Among the projects Locker advanced on behalf of Prime Minister Netanyahu were: reform of non-perishable food imports, reducing the use of cash, reform in public sector personnel, the plan to reduce government regulation and bureaucracy, moving the IDF south and evacuating IDF bases in high-demand areas, a plan for the socio-economic development of the Negev and the area adjacent to the Gaza Strip, enacting greater transparency and oversight of the security budget, the fiber-optic and Digital Israel initiatives, advancing the natural gas sector, planning and building reforms, housing reforms, free kindergarten for three-to-four-year-olds, promoting economic relations with Japan, an economic development plan for the minorities sector and industrial privatization.

Prime Minister Netanyahu said, “I thank Harel for his productive and welcome efforts in one of the most complicated positions in the public sector. For three years, and during two terms in which I served as prime minister, Harel was exceptional in promoting many issues that were critical for the state of Israel and did so with a sense of mission, professionalism, modesty and great success.”

Locker said, “This has been an intense and fascinating period and I had the great privilege of assisting the Prime Minister at important junctures in public administration. I thank the Prime minister for choosing me for one of the key positions in the public sector of the State of Israel and for giving me the confidence and backing to promote important issues over the years.”

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)