Under the patronage of Prime Minister Imad Khamis, the 1st Syrian Investment Forum kicked off on Monday at the Damascus-based Dama Rose Hotel under the title “Syria, Towards the Future.”
The Forum will focus on prospects of developing and encouraging investments through providing all the required facilitations for them and putting them under implementation.
The Forum is accompanied by an exhibition showcasing investment projects in the domains of tourism, industry, agriculture, transportation, energy, and others, and later dialogue sessions will be held to discuss the investment facilitations and the legislative environment of the investments and finance.
In a statement following the opening of the investment projects exhibition, Premier Khamis said that the Forum is a significant national event which proves to the world the Syria is continuing the process of reform and development under the leadership of President Bashar al-Assad.
He affirmed that there is a strong connection between administrative reform and the economic activity, adding that administrative reform enhances the satisfaction of the investors and the clients regarding the quality of the offered services.
“Investment can be developed through administrative measures and the concerned institutions which are considered a basic factor for the success of the investment or its failure,” Khamis said.
He asserted the keenness of the government on implementing the national project for administrative reform which was launched by President al-Assad, pointing out that improving the investment environment is a main condition for the success of investment projects and visions.
150 projects are being offered for investment at the Forum, 50 of which are in the tourism sector with an estimated value of around SYP 60 billion.
He said this Forum is an opportunity to announce a new stage in the development of economic activity characterized by the readiness of the Syrian economy to launch a new wave of investments, noting that the government’s efforts over the past period resulted in the return of hundreds of industrial factories back into service and the return of large areas of agricultural land into production, in addition to the reinvesting in many oil fields and gas wells after army regained control over them.
Premier Khamis hoped that this Forum will constitute a basis for making decisions that contribute to improving the investment sector, attracting the national and foreign investors and solving all the problems and difficulties that are facing investors.
In a press statement, Information Minister Mohammad Ramez Tourjman said that the Forum sends a message to the private sector and businessmen that “they must be real, positive and active partners alongside the public sector in the reconstruction of Syria.”
Source: SANA
