Intel Corp. has announced that it will build a $3.5 billion plant in southern Israel alongside an existing one, and the Israeli government said the project would create more than 4,000 jobs in a region hard hit by unemployment. The new plant will be located in the southern Negev desert region, where development towns built around textile factories are reeling under high unemployment rates, now that the factories are closing because of high labor costs.
See "Intel to Build Second Plant in Israel", Associated Press, The New York Times, November 30, 2005