The deputy governor of the Bank of Israel, Professor Zvi Eckstein, is developing a plan to reduce drastically the number of foreign workers in Israel.

In recent months he has spoken with ministers, MKs and senior officials, and says he has found support for his plan.

"Everybody is longing for a solution to the problem," he said.

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Eckstein, an economics professor at Tel Aviv University who took up his post about six months ago, said he believed employing foreign workers causes social, economic and cultural damage to Israel.

Foreign workers earn low pay that drags down the wages of Israelis, and take the place of unskilled Israeli laborers, he said.

Eckstein said frequently changing policies have caused chaos in construction, agricultural, caregiving and industrial work.

The ideal situation, Eckstein believes, would be reducing the number of foreign workers to zero, and at most issuing a limited number of permits to poor, elderly citizens who need caregivers.

As a first step, Eckstein, who hopes to present his plan next month, is studying the situation in other countries. He suggests imitating Australia's policy. The Australians understood that their large country, with its small population, could be flooded with millions of uneducated workers from the region, so it completely blocked their entry.

The answer in agriculture is greater mechanization, Eckstein said, and the state subsidizes technology to replace cheap labor.

Eckstein is developing his plan along with Professor Manuel Trachtenberg, a colleague from Tel Aviv University who heads the National Economic Council in the Prime Minister's Office.