CEO-IDF-Negev Project

The IDF Training City: The single biggest and most complex Public Private Partnership (PPP)/Private Finance Initiative (PFI) project in the Middle East

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) New Training City Development

The Israel Defense Forces Planning Branch devised a long term plan named the “Training City.” The plan includes moving a number of training bases, located in the center and north of the country, to a site in the south of the country. The plan aims to build a unified, modern, efficient and environmentally conscious training facility, free expensive land where the actual bases are located and help develop the desolate south of the country.
The project has both national and military significance. The project will:
a. Trigger organizational changes making different units more efficient.
b. Deploy an advanced and innovative infrastructure.
c. Advance the development and use of innovative teaching methods and technologies.
d. Update military, management and operational systems.
e. Involve private sector’s abilities and combine them with military organizational systems.
f. Develop the Negev (southern desert) an area of national priority.
g. Enable pooling of resources from many bases into one base, making them more efficient.
 The State of Israel decided to implement the project as a PFI tender – a tender for a public project partnering with the private sector including: private entrepreneur planning, financing and building, as well as operating the Training City, for a period of time – at fixed cost to the state. The cost of the construction has been estimated between 2-3 billion new Israeli shekels (~ U.S. $ 700 million, Globes 11-13-2008). The IDF Training City will comprise 250.000 square meters of built-up areas over an area of 250 hectares.  Completion of the construction work is expected in 2012.
The Israel Ministry of Defense and the IDF choose the CEO Group to be the consulting company to lead the project up to the publication of the RFP stage. The CEO Group will develop the operational, training and maintenance materials for the Training City. The Group mapped the needs, defined the aims and objectives together with the clients and wrote the specifications and instructions for establishing the Training City.