Governor of the Central Bank of Syria: We are keen to facilitate commercial work within the laws and regulations in force

Damascus-SANA

The Governor of the Central Bank of Syria, Dr. Muhammad Essam Hazemeh, affirmed the bank's keenness to facilitate commercial work both internally and externally, import and export within the laws and regulations in force, in a way that enhances the strength of the national economy.

During his meeting with commercial and industrial activities in the Damascus Chamber of Commerce this evening, Al-Hakim explained that the goal of resolutions 1070 and 1071 issued by the bank is to organize the import market according to the priority of basic materials and then the next in importance and to preserve the rights of the consumer, the state and the supplier, indicating that the two resolutions added a channel to finance imports, which are the exchange companies. Which is under immediate follow-up and fully abides by the texts regulating the subject of foreign exchange.

The ruler called on merchants, industrialists, suppliers and everyone who has transactions in foreign exchange to deal with the approved official channels, and that there are licensed exchange companies whose mission is to finance imports, and everyone must deal with them and not go to the black market, and that the bank is ready to address any case or problem that requires treatment before it escalates.

The governor of the bank said, “We want merchants to continue their national and moral role, and we reject anyone who works outside this framework.”

He stressed that the bank is working to address the issue of restricting daily withdrawals from banks set at two million pounds, by submitting a request to any merchant, industrialist and supplier to the Central Bank and responding to it, indicating that the total withdrawals amounted to 54 billion pounds so far.

In turn, the head of the Damascus Chamber of Commerce, Muhammad Abu Al-Huda Al-Lahham, pointed out the importance of the meeting to raise all questions about the recent decisions of the Central Bank and to present the problematic issues related to them to clarify some aspects or correct the decisions.

For his part, the head of the Damascus and its countryside Chamber of Industry, Samer Al-Debs, said that everyone’s goal is the continuation of the stability of the exchange rate with the aim of stabilizing the markets, calling for addressing the concerns of industrialists regarding import licenses and raw materials needed for their factories and the need not to stop them and to give time for the holders of previous import licenses to issue the two decisions.

In turn, the Secretary of the Damascus Chamber of Commerce, Muhammad Al-Hallaq, suggested that a period of time be given to implement any decision in order to avoid implementation obstacles. The merchants in the chambers and markets will work with the government in a positive, participatory spirit, and address the shortcomings or problems that are not included in any decision.

The interventions of the audience focused on the status of import licensing transactions, which took place before the issuance of the bank’s decisions, the subject of the pledge to return foreign exchange, extending the payment period, taking into account the conditions of exporters, reopening loans, moving troubled factories, opening the lending ceiling, and determining the value of the bank’s administrative reservation equal to the size of the amount reserved for it plus the prescribed legal percentage. All property of the borrower.

In his answers to these questions, the governor of the bank clarified that we are going through exceptional circumstances accompanied by economic war and sanctions on the banking sector, and therefore it is working to make decisions that serve everyone, starting from the consumer to the industrialist, the merchant and the supplier within the framework of the interest of the national economy.

The ruler stressed the cooperation of everyone to advance the banking sector, whose success will be reflected in the rest of the economy, calling on suppliers and merchants to split the import license, deal in a patriotic spirit, and not abuse the balance of imports, which leads to everyone's loss.

Al-Hakim stated that the Central Bank of Syria issued executive instructions for dealing with foreign exchange stating that there is no accountability for any person regarding the possession of foreign currency, provided that he does not deal with it inside Syria in illegal ways, pointing out that it was allowed to enter 500 thousand dollars at the border crossings.

The ruler indicated that decisions will be issued soon, which collectively constitute a banking environment that helps finance imports and the export process easily and safely, and coincides with the electronic payment project, which will see the light soon while it is in its experimental stage, and there are promising results in it.

Ahmed Suleiman and Tariq Al-Sayed