Damascus, (SANA) – The Syrian and German governments signed on Wednesday letters on technical cooperation at the State Planning Commission, according to which the German government will present a grant of Euro 12 million to participate in carrying out vital development projects.

The letters stipulate for carrying out institutional support programs in the financial sector, supporting economic reform in Syria, the sustainable urban development program, the higher institute for managing water resources, and the studies and experts fund.

Pursuant to the letters, the German government tasks the German Technical Cooperation Agency (GTZ) and the Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources (BGR) with carrying out these projects in cooperation with Syrian authorities.

The Syrian government will also allocate a special budget to guarantee the continuous execution of these projects. The details, commitments and contributions of each project will be specified later in separate agreements between parties concerned.

The agreements were signed by Head of the State Planning Commission Amer Housni Lutfi and Germany's Ambassador in Damascus Andreas Reinicke.

For his part, Lutfi underlined the importance of the projects that will be carried out, noting that the grant will be distributed according to agreements that will be signed later between the two sides.

He also expressed appreciation of the German government's fruitful, serious and constant cooperation for supporting development projects in Syria, noting that the grant comes in addition to the annual participation by the German government for cooperation in carious fields, which is around 20 to 25 million Euros.

In turn, Reinicke affirmed his country's commitment to supporting Syria in all vital and priority development fields and in the process of adopting social market economy. He also expressed his country's relief over the fruitful cooperation with the Syrian government that bolstered trust and desire to boost cooperation in all fields.

H. Sabbagh