The Syrian economy has been devastated by 14 years of war and Western sanctions [Getty]
Syria's interim government plans to overhaul the country’s economy and embrace liberal market reforms, ending decades of state control and cronyism, a leading business lobbyist told Reuters on Tuesday.
The new administration, formed on Tuesday following the collapse of the Assad regime at the weekend, is trying to assuage concerns among business leaders about the direction of the country under the Islamist rebel group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS).
“It will be a free-market system based on competition,” Bassel Hamwi, the head of the Damascus Chambers of Commerce, told the newswire after meeting with the interim economy minister Bassel Abdul Aziz.
One of the administration’s targets is the country’s heavily regulated customs system, which will be relaxed to make it easier for businesses to bring goods into the country, according to Hamwi. Traders currently face significant hurdles in importing goods due to curbs on the use of foreign currency and a slow and complex system.
“Everyone who registers at the chambers will be able to import the goods they want into the market, within a specific system,” he said.
Several other businessmen interviewed by Reuters also spoke optimistically about the initial indicators given by the new administration, though uncertainty remains high. "People are still waiting to see if it will be an open society or an Islamic state," one Beirut-based Syrian businessman said.
Since overthrowing the Ba’athist regime in a lightening offensive earlier this month, HTS has reached out to Syrian society and the international community seeking to quell fears that it intends to establish a Sunni Islamist regime in Damascus.
The organisation and its leader Ahmed al-Shar’a, who both have roots in al-Qaeda, have pledged to respect the rights of the country’s minority communities and establish a non-sectarian government.
Mohamed al-Bashir, the head of HTS’s civilian administration in Idlib, was on Tuesday chosen to serve as the country’s interim prime minister until March and has appointed a multi-ethnic, multi-sectarian caretaker cabinet.
Economic toll of the war
Syria’s economy has been devasted by almost 14 years of war and Western sanctions, which have ground many of its most important sectors to a halt, collapsed the value of the Syrian Pound, and choked off the government’s sources of crucial foreign-currency revenues.
The World Bank has warned that the turmoil has pushed more than a quarter of the population into extreme poverty, while the UN’s humanitarian chief said last year that as many as 90% of the population are below the poverty line.
Obtaining sanctions relief will be key to revitalising the economy but is complicated by the fact that the UN and Western countries currently consider HTS a terrorist organisation. Since its coming to power, the US, the UN and others have suggested they could remove HTS from their terror lists if it establishes a non-sectarian government that respects minorities and doesn’t engage in terrorism.
Two US lawmakers called on the Biden administration this week to relax sanctions on Syria to ease pressure on the country’s economy.