Mar 26, 2019

On March 24, Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Vershinin met in Moscow with Mirjana Spoljaric Egger, the UN Development Program's director of the regional bureau for Europe, and David Akopyan, the UNDP's country director in Syria.

The Russian Foreign Ministry reported, "UNDP representatives in Syria have informed us about the current state of affairs in Syria’s early reconstruction and about the results achieved in the context of the implementation of projects with Russia’s donor participation aimed at rebuilding residential areas and basic infrastructure in Syria."

In September 2018, the 60th Damascus International Fair saw substantial participation from Russian companies. At the international fair, a road map of Russian-Syrian economic cooperation was adopted. Priority projects in industry, energy, transport, health care and construction were further discussed in Damascus in December 2018 at the 11th meeting of the permanent Russian-Syrian Commission on Trade, Economic, Scientific and Technical Cooperation. All of these events raised a broad scope of practical issues, including legal issues, related to the participation of Russian companies in Syrian reconstruction.

Since its independence, Syria has witnessed periods of openness, or al-infitah, despite the traditional domination of the Syrian state in economic affairs. These periods of openness include the free movement of capital in 1946-1963; the endorsement of loyal private businesses under Hafez al-Assad’s rule from 1970-2000; and the prewar liberalization and privatization policies during the first years of Bashar al-Assad’s presidency. Thus, both in domestic and international activities, Syrian entrepreneurs and industrialists are accustomed to conducting business in accordance with the rule of private commercial law.

At the same time, Syrian entrepreneurs, especially, medium- and small-sized entrepreneurs, have suffered from too much bureaucracy, corruption, complicated legal practices (such as registration and licensing procedures), the monopoly of “shadow” business groups and threats of raids posed by government-affiliated businessmen, popularly known as “children of the authority,” or awlad al-sulta in Arabic. The raiding and racketeering problems are still there, as Syrian authorities grant concessions to top military commanders, loyalist communities, newly emerged business elites and foreign allies. All of the groups feel entitled to exclusive rewards in the reconstruction business for their contribution to saving Assad’s rule.