Damascus-Sana
The activities of the Ministry of Economy and Foreign Trade during the past year focused on signing agreements with friendly countries such as Crimea, Belarus and Iran, strengthening cooperation with other countries, participating in 17 external exhibitions, and supervising 47 internal exhibitions with measures to protect the national product and preserve foreign currencies through a program to replace the import substitution industry in addition to To work in the field of empowering entrepreneurs and owners of small and medium enterprises.
In the field of strengthening economic and commercial relations with countries, the Ministry has taken several measures, including the inclusion of Syria in the list of countries that enjoy the customs privileges of the Eurasian Economic Union and participation in the "Arabia Expo 2019" exhibition in Moscow between the 8 and 10 of April 2019 and the signing of an agreement on trade and economic cooperation With the Crimea on August 29, 2019 and the opening of a branch of the commercial house “Syria .. Crimea” in Damascus and participation in the Yalta International Economic Forum in the Republic of Crimea between the 18 and 20 of April 2019.
The year 2019 also witnessed the signing of the long-term strategic economic cooperation agreement at the conclusion of the work of the Syrian-Iranian Joint Ministerial Committee and the signing of several cooperation documents with Belarus during the meetings of the seventh session of the Joint Committee held in Damascus on 29 and 30 August 2019, including a memorandum of understanding for cooperation between the center The National Marketing and Price Study for the Belarusian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the General Foreign Trade Corporation of the Syrian Ministry of Economy and Foreign Trade.
The Ministry has also completed procedures for entering into an agreement to facilitate and develop trade and economic cooperation between Syria and Abkhazia into effect, and procedures for entering into an agreement to facilitate and develop trade and economic cooperation between Syria and South Ossetia into effect, as well as signing an agreement to establish a commercial house in both Syria and South Ossetia on August 31, 2019. .
In terms of developing the performance of the Foreign Trade Department, the Ministry has worked to simplify procedures for obtaining import licenses, such as approving and saving the document issued by the insurance in the same year, approving the original copy from the Chamber of Industry for the certificate of registration and preserving it, and organizing the mechanism for granting import licenses for goods and mechanisms in free zones based on local bills Issued by the branches of the Free Zones Corporation and organizing the process of rationalizing import and simplifying and controlling procedures in order to prevent the process of repeating import licenses and approvals.
In the field of export, the Ministry has drawn up the national plan for export and approved by the Council of Ministers. Work is currently being carried out by the ministries and relevant authorities, with the provision of export incentives to important sectors, support for shipping export contracts to the Damascus International Fair and bear all shipping costs and support to participate in external exhibitions to promote the Syrian product.
And on the activity of the General Organization for Free Zones, the actual revenues of the Foundation amounted to about 4056 million Syrian pounds until the 30th of November 2019, while the value of commercial traffic amounted to about 85.5 billion pounds, including 41 billion pounds of commercial goods movement into the free zones and 44.5 billion pounds of movement of goods out of it and reached The invested capital is around 751 million dollars.
With regard to the General Organization for Exhibitions and International Markets, this year witnessed the establishment of the 61st session of the Damascus International Exhibition with the participation of 38 Arab and foreign countries and 1700 companies in an area that is the largest since the first sessions of the exhibition in addition to supervising 86 bazaars, 25 shopping festival and 47 exhibitions in addition to participating in 17 external exhibitions.
And on the activity of the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Authority, a number of cooperation agreements have been signed between the Small and Medium Enterprises Authority and some training centers in the governorates with the aim of empowering entrepreneurs and owners of small and medium enterprises, qualifying cadres and employing youth energies in all professions and specialties. Provinces.
With regard to the development of local production and exports, export incentives and freight support were disbursed to the Damascus International Fair, following up the implementation of the reliability and external marketing program for Syrian agricultural products and launching the national campaign to promote citrus internally and externally.
On the economic policy front, the Ministry worked on formulating a package of policies and programs within the directions of supporting the production process, including a program to replace the import substitute industry with the aim of reducing the import bill for goods that can be produced locally and achieving self-sufficiency.
It also worked on a program to support the private sector through the application of a package of policies supporting the expansion of production and operation and strengthening its role and the interest rate support program, where 20 billion pounds were allocated in the state’s public budget and the ministry signed a framework agreement with banks operating in Syria specifying a mechanism to benefit from price support Interest A loan interest rate program has been launched for several programs.
The Ministry finished preparing a draft of the investment law with the aim of creating a stimulating and attractive investment climate for local and foreign investments and preparing a set of executive programs within the post-war Syria program, particularly with regard to strengthening the business environment, developing small and medium enterprises and enabling foreign trade.
Bushra Barhoum
