Damascus-Sana
The Cabinet affirmed the necessity of exerting utmost efforts to follow up all the requirements of the presidential election and the conduct of the electoral process with high efficiency that reflects the will of the Syrian people and their right to determine the future of their country and elect their leadership freely and transparently .. and that the government is at one distance from all the candidates and its role is to ensure the smooth running of the electoral process.
During its weekly session chaired by Engineer Hussein Arnous, Prime Minister, the Council agreed to set list prices of basic materials and instructed the Ministry of Internal Trade and Consumer Protection to take what is necessary to ensure that commercial activities adhere to the approved price bulletin and work to add new materials to the list continuously and to strictly apply Legislative Decree No. 8 For the year 2021.
The Council assigned the Ministry of Industry to operate foodstuff factories to their maximum limits to ensure that the local markets met their needs and to enhance the stock of Syrian trade halls in the governorates, and stressed the expansion of the participation of local authorities in monitoring markets and controlling prices.
The Council of Ministers discussed the draft legislative instrument that includes the creation of the Social Military Institution in order to expand the circle of its activities and work and improve its reality to meet the citizens' needs of food supplies, consumer goods and various equipment with quality and competitive prices for the local markets.
The Council affirmed that the Ministry of Agriculture and Agrarian Reform should continuously follow up on desert locust control measures, strengthen control teams, equipment, and pesticides to deal with emergency situations, and prepare for the grain conference to develop an integrated plan for marketing the wheat crop for the current season, securing harvesters and bags, and preparing an early warning system for fires.
The Council stressed on supporting modern irrigation projects and increasing them in government projects and maintaining irrigation networks to compensate for losses in the network, monitoring dams and ensuring the availability of water reserves in them, and stressed that the Ministry of Electricity should continue to maintain the generation facilities and increase their production capacity according to a plan at the near and medium levels. It also requested the Ministry of Oil to start increasing the amount. Gasoline in a single package and monitoring the import and consumption of oil derivatives.
Eng. Arnous stressed the need to take what is necessary to implement the stages of the electronic payment project according to the specified time periods and increase the services provided through the e-citizen service center, as well as strengthen the relief efforts and expand them horizontally to cover all governorates and work to optimally invest the efforts of the organizations.
In addition, the Council listened to a presentation on the health sector's readiness to deal with the Corona epidemic and the measures taken to provide its requirements and increase its absorptive capacity, and stressed the need for continuous support to enable hospitals and health centers to deal with developments related to the spread of the epidemic in the governorates.
The Council approved the allocation of the General Organization for Geology and Mineral Resources with an area in the Ras al-Maara area to establish quarries for the investment of pure limestone and the lands necessary for the construction of a service road that reaches the quarries area. The central department of one of the departments of the University Heart Surgery Hospital in Damascus.
In a statement to reporters after the session, the Minister of Agriculture and Agrarian Reform, Eng. Muhammad Hassan Qatana, said that during the session, the issue of locusts, which came to Syria from Iraqi lands in the form of simple regiments, entered the areas of Albu Kamal and As-Suwayda and there are new groups entering Daraa governorate, and these groups are very few and there is no concern about Their entry, usually when locusts enter with large swarms, can have great risks and affect the sector and agricultural products significantly. As for the quantities that have entered it, it is very limited.
Eng. Qatna added ... we conducted a field tour two days ago, as soon as these quantities entered Syria, and through field trips in the fields it was found that they do not pose a danger and pesticides were used, and an area of 1500 dunums in Deir Ez-Zor governorate and 4,500 dunums in the As-Suwayda governorate were fought, and now the control process is underway. In Daraa governorate, there is no concern and the quantities are simple.
He explained that the Ministry of Agriculture is forming investigation and early warning teams and securing all the necessary equipment to combat this pest, and in case there are any injuries, they will be dealt with directly.
