DAMASCUS, SANA _ Finance Minister Mohammad al-Hussein said Saturday the Ministry of Finance is working to secure the requirements of the application of value-added tax VAT, including the preparation of legislative texts and human cadres and the necessary systems to be accomplished in 2010.

The Minister, at the conference of the VAT opened yesterday evening in the Four Seasons Hotel, added that the application of the value-added tax, will be a substitute for 12 taxes and fees which are currently applied, on the top of which is tax of consumer spending.

" There is a direction to exempt the main foodstuffs, medicine, health services, agricultural production, water, electricity, gas prepared for house use, real estate prepared for housing of the Syrians, rental of real estate, education at all levels, financial and banking services, insurance and charitable organizations and associations, " The Minister said.

For his part, Turkish Finance Minister expressed his country's readiness to cooperate with Syria in the area of VAT and the exchange of experiences and cadres in this regard.

He called for cooperation with Syria to face the global financial crisis and to reduce its impact on the economies of the two countries, indicating that Syria is one of the less affected by the result of this global crisis due to its correct policy in the economic field.

Other delivered speeches underlined the importance of the conference and the role of VAT in increasing the efficiency of the tax system and improving the tax income, noting that the work by the VAT is one of the most important steps to reform the tax system where it provides about 25% of the total tax revenue.

The conference is organized by the Bank Group and the investor in collaboration with the Ministry of Finance.

Governor of the Central Bank of Syria, a number of deputy ministers, ambassadors, economic, financial, industrial and commercial activities in addition to a crowd of economic experts from Arab and foreign countries attended the conference.

Ghossoun /