Today, Wednesday, Syrian Finance Minister Mohamed Youser Burniyah called on global investors to invest in Syria, after US President Donald Trump’s sudden announcement of the lifting of US sanctions on them.
Reuters quoted Burniyah as saying that Syria has become “the land of opportunities”, adding that it has tremendous potential in all sectors from agriculture to oil, tourism, infrastructure and transportation.
The official news agency (SANA) quoted Burniyah as saying yesterday, Tuesday, that the lifting of sanctions “will help Syria in building its institutions, providing basic services to the people, and will create great opportunities to attract investment and restore confidence in the future of Syria.”
The expected effect
In a related context, the French Press Agency quoted the editor -in -chief of the electronic economic newsletter, “Syria Report”, Jihad Yazji, as saying that “the US sanctions were the most influential” among all the Western sanctions imposed during the previous ruling.
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He added that raising American restrictions “a very important political sign, simply that everyone can work with Syria again … and this is very important.”
He pointed out that “the most obvious direct impact will be to facilitate the transfer of money from the Gulf countries, in addition to development aid in general.”
Yazji notes that for Syrians, about 90% of them are below the poverty line, according to the United Nations, the greatest impact on their diaries remains in the lifting of sanctions on the banking sector.
The sanctions separated Syrian banks from the global banking system, “and therefore it was not possible to make financial transfers to and from Syria,” according to the expert.
He believes that lifting sanctions on the banking sector would “facilitate the transfers to and from Syria, which will improve commercial activity, enhance investment, and will provide many job opportunities and create a more active business environment.”
It is expected that the return of financial transactions with the outside will be reflected positively on the Syrian pound, which gradually lost about 90% of its value during the conflict years, and after the exchange rate of one dollar was approximately 50 Syrian pounds before 2011, it currently ranges between 10 thousand and 12 thousand pounds.
Yazji explains that “it is supposed to be a greater flow of the dollar to Syria, which may help support the value of the local currency in the medium to the long term,” but it indicates “many other influential factors, such as whether the government will print more currency and increase spending to raise salaries.”
