Syria, Belarus discuss joint investment and economic cooperation prospects

Damascus, SANA – The Syrian-Belarusian economic and investment cooperation was the focus of talks held between Deputy Director General of Syrian Investment Agency (SIA) Inas al-Umawi and Belarusian Ambassador in Damascus Alexander Ponomarev.

Al-Umawi stressed the need for increasing trade exchange, investments and joint projects between the two countries which will contribute to enhancing the national economy, adding the meeting came as part of the Agency’s promotional campaign to establish investment and economic partnerships with the friendly countries.

She reviewed investment opportunities and the investment map in Syria, underlining the SIA efforts to issue a unified investment law since the current law does not include tourism and real estate development sectors.

For his part, Ponomarev highlighted the strong bilateral relations between Syria and Belarus, the memos of understanding and joint agreements such as the Investment Protection Agreement and the Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement.

He added that there are strong indications of the recovery of the Syrian economy, expressing his country’s readiness to provide help and launch industrial investment projects.

The Belarusian Ambassador, who has recently visited Homs province and the Industrial City of Hassia, said that there are significant investment opportunities and great possibility to establish joint projects in Hassia due to its strategic location and the high-quality training of the operating technical cadres.

“Before the crisis, Belarus made several investments in the companies specialized in assembling trucks and buses,” said Ponomarev, adding that it is time to revive these companies in addition to other ventures in agriculture and tourism.

In turn, Head of the Syrian-Belarusian Business Council Imad Ma’atouk hoped that the two countries would work together to remove obstacles hindering the enhancement of joint investment development.

The joint Belarusian-Syrian commission for trade, economic and technical cooperation concluded its meeting last month in the Belarusian capital of Minsk.
In February 2015, Syria and Belarus singed three cooperation agreements in administrative cooperation, mutual assistance in Customs and emergency cases, and the exchange of ratification documents on the judicial cooperation agreement.

Rasha Raslan/Manal

Check Also

Syrian musician wins third place at IV International Gloria Artis, Music competition in Vienna 2024

Vienna, SANA- Syrian academic musician Hagop Knouzi won the third place in the fourth International …