This Thursday, the government will vote on the Economic Arrangements Bill to accompany the 2026 state budget. Priority in the budget is given to security, debt servicing, and other commitments. By contrast, investments aimed at building the country’s future capabilities are still in a grey area.
One of the main advantages of a digital project such as Nimbus is that it will make the work of government employees much more efficient. Technological tools that shorten processes will allow a reduction in the annual rate of growth in the state’s workforce from 2% to 1.65%, leading to substantial savings in wage costs — billions over time.
Besides this, such projects improve service to the citizen. Despite the relatively low cost — about NIS 1 billion for all government ministries — the plan is in danger of falling by the wayside, and professional sources warn that postponing it will entail higher costs in the future.
What is Project Nimbus?
Nimbus is essentially a project for providing cloud computing services to all government ministries on a public cloud platform. The project is adapted to the special requirements of the government of Israel, and it enables ministries to accelerate their digital transformation, to upgrade their data, and to implement artificial intelligence.
The Nimbus infrastructure facilitated the Israel Tax Authority’s invoices validation project, which brought in billions of shekels to the state. It also facilitated the development of an automated means testing system that scans documents from the banks, insurance companies, the Law Enforcement and Collection System Authority, and the National Insurance Institute, enabling the authorities to examine entitlement to welfare benefits swiftly. Thanks to this infrastructure, emergency programs were developed, such as a system for dealing with people evacuated because of the war, which was set up in just fourteen days.
Other projects liable to be deferred if Nimbus is not funded are the virtual office obviating the need to turn up physically at government offices, artificial intelligence-based tools for Knesset committees to make discussions and searches for information more efficient, and systems for improving decision making in real time.
Israel liable to be left behind
The upcoming Economic Arrangements Bill contains a strategic plan for advancing Nimbus, with concrete goals: reduction of the time taken to transfer information between public bodies from 240-500 days to 90 days; automatic exercise of rights without the citizen having to be proactive; and, as mentioned, reduction in the rate of growth of the government workforce. Automated systems are planned for the Official Receiver, the Inheritance Registrar, the Land Registry (Tabu), the Ministry of Welfare and Social Affairs, hospitals, and Customs, that will considerably shorten the time taken to deal with matters.
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Government sources fear that upgrading the digital infrastructure will be set aside in favor of the urgent needs of important bodies, especially the defense establishment. According to these sources, Israel is one of the countries with the highest demographic growth in the OECD. Without substantial change in work methods, there will be a continuing need to increase the number of judges, doctors, and social workers, instead of implementing systems that will allow them to do more with less. Many sources warn that if the government continues to treat technology as a luxury, Israel will fall behind, not just in relation to developed countries, but also in relation to itself.
Published by Globes, Israel business news — en.globes.co.il — on December 3, 2025.
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd., 2025.
