Damascus-SANA
The People's Assembly, in its thirteenth session of the fifth regular session of the third legislative session, held today headed by Speaker Hammouda Sabbagh, approved a number of bills and they became laws.
The Council approved by majority the two bills that included amending the value of the stamp of the martyr specified in Article (1) of Legislative Decree No. 42 of 2014 to become 200 Syrian pounds, and amending the value of the stamp duty of the war effort specified in Article (1) of Legislative Decree No. 30 of 2013 to become 300 Syrian pounds.
The Council also approved, by majority, the draft law that includes amending the percentage of cash contribution to support sustainable development contained in Article (3) of Legislative Decree No. 28 of 1982 amended by Law No. 45 of 1976 to become 10 percent for the fees for leisure, transfer, real estate registration and the associated stamp fee. .
The Council referred the new draft law regulating the creation of the Syrian Chambers of Industry and the Federation of Chambers of Industry to replace Legislative Decree No. 52 of 2009 to a joint committee consisting of the Economic and Energy Affairs Committee and the Constitutional and Legislative Affairs Committee to study it and prepare the necessary report on it.
The council also discussed the performance of the Ministry of Communications and Technology and issues related to its work. The Minister of Communications, Eng. Iyad Al-Khatib, gave a presentation on the ministry’s work plan and what has been implemented to date, indicating that the ministry will implement 11 projects this year with specific financial allocations of 50 billion Syrian pounds, including the completion of the construction of the commercial registry and national registry system The Ministry of Health has an electronic health record for every citizen in addition to the industrial record.
Minister Al-Khatib indicated that work is underway on the government procurement system project, so that through an electronic portal, all government projects are announced at competitive, fair and transparent prices, in addition to the two projects of Commercial Vehicle Operations Management and Electronic Lamination Department of the Ministry of Transport. .
Minister Al-Khatib confirmed the automation of the work of 180 postal centers to date, and work is underway to automate the rest of the centers and link them to the main center in the Syrian Post Corporation, and work is continuing to restore communications to the liberated areas.
Minister Al-Khatib revealed that 80,000 gates will be distributed by the Syrian Telecom to the governorates in the next few days, and work is underway to expand the international gateway for the Internet in Syria after the arrival of the necessary equipment, and it will be supplied to the main centers to increase the gateway's ability to absorb new subscribers and improve the capacity of the Internet.
Regarding the software industry, Minister Al-Khatib pointed out that there are 100 applications that are being worked on to give them the necessary reliability to work on the network, and 10 of them have started to work with a final permit and 15 others with a preliminary permit, indicating that the ministry has asked the companies (Syriatel) and MTN to find quick solutions to improve the quality of coverage and restore it to what it was it previously.
Minister Al-Khatib revealed that the Communications and Postal Regulatory Authority is working on the project of the third cellular communications operator (Wafa), which will be granted the license during the next week, to be the first call through it after nine months from the date of granting the license and after it has completed all the necessary procedures and equipment.
In their interventions, a number of council members demanded to support the incentive system for technical workers in communication centers and to expedite the installation of modern equipment for alternative energies to operate cell communication towers during electrical rationing and support the Badia region with additional communication towers, pointing out the need to distribute Internet portals based on the concentration of population density in the regions and the increase in the number of collection offices Monthly bills to relieve congestion.
Some members called for accelerating the rehabilitation of the branches of the Postal Corporation, creating electronic centers to serve the citizen, rehabilitating networks and communication centers, accelerating the application of the electronic payment process for bills and services in all governorates, and adopting the pricing of cellular communications based on seconds and not minutes, stressing the need to enhance awareness of the importance of electronic payment services.
In response to the interventions, Minister Al-Khatib confirmed that an announcement will be made to secure 150,000 gates at the end of this month to be distributed to the governorates, indicating that the incentives system will be presented to the Council of Ministers at the beginning of next month, and rare specializations with outstanding intellectual work will be granted a 100 percent incentive system.
Minister Al-Khatib pointed out that the number of photovoltaic access units for which solar panels have been installed has reached 62 units in all governorates, in addition to 33 units installed outside the telephone centers (UNO) for which a solar energy system will be secured, indicating that an amount of 7 billion pounds has been allocated to the telecom company. From the universal service fund for the introduction of solar energy to other photovoltaic units.
The Minister of Communications revealed that exclusivity was granted to the third operator to introduce the 5G feature within a period of two years from the start of the exclusivity. Service currently exists but this makes the price per minute higher.
The session, which was attended by the Minister of Finance, Dr. Kenan Yaghi and the State for People's Assembly Affairs, Abdullah Abdullah, was adjourned to 11:00 p.m. tomorrow, Wednesday.
Louay Hosamou and Mada Alloush
