The Turkish Business Community Will Play a Significant Role in Syria’s Recovery
President of the Foreign Economic Relations Board (DEİK), Nail Olpak, stated: “Syrian Minister of Transport, Yarub Suleiman Badr, said they do not wish to operate certain ports and similar facilities themselves and are open to cooperation with interested parties. In my opinion, this is one of the areas that can be entered quickly.”
Several prominent business figures accompanied Minister of Trade Ömer Bolat during his two-day visit to Damascus. DEİK President Olpak, who was part of the delegation, spoke to the press to evaluate the meetings in Syria and the upcoming process.
Emphasizing the importance of this visit following the formation of Syria’s new government, Olpak noted that they first met with Syria’s Minister of Economy, Nidal Shaar. He continued:
“When we list the expectations of the business world, the trade side of the issue comes up first, and that’s relatively easier. Since the Minister also serves as the Minister of Industry, we also discussed investments. To be realistic, investments must be considered in short, medium, and long-term perspectives. Investments are not things that yield returns overnight. Yes, there is potential in Syria, but we must acknowledge that time is needed.
We discussed what could be done mutually in this regard. Of course, for trade and investment to happen, logistics and transportation must be ensured. In this context, we met with the Minister of Transport, Yarub Suleiman Badr. This involves land, sea, and air routes. We talked about what can be done in this regard. The Minister mentioned that they do not want to operate some ports and similar facilities themselves and are ready for cooperation if there are interested parties. I think this is one of the areas where progress can be made quickly because we are not talking about building something from scratch, but rather revitalizing existing, idle, non-operational facilities.”
“We have expectations for two separate laws — once they are in place, the business community will know what to do”
Olpak pointed out that in Türkiye, as in some aspects of the textile industry, there is unused capacity in certain fields, and they discussed the possibility of transferring some of that to Syria.
He emphasized that for trade to function, a banking presence in Syria is essential and added:
“To be able to trade, you must be able to transfer money, and a legal framework for commerce must exist. We had a clear and direct discussion with Syria’s Minister of Finance, Mohammad Yusr Berniyye. We also conveyed our expectation for two specific laws: one is the ‘Agreement on the Promotion and Protection of Investments,’ and the other is the ‘Agreement on the Avoidance of Double Taxation.’ We told them that once these are in place, the business community will know what to do.
Later, we had a very important meeting with the Director General of Syria’s Land and Sea Ports Administration, Kutaiba Ahmad Badawi. We had the opportunity to directly discuss what is happening at the customs gates. In that regard, it was a very productive visit. Although no specific agreements were signed, concrete topics were discussed, and in that sense, I consider the visit quite tangible. We didn’t return saying ‘we signed this agreement,’ but we came back with a strong foundation. We will closely follow the process.”
Olpak also noted that they discussed an issue related to DEİK’s operations:
“We work with Business Councils. We informed them that Syria needs to designate its counterpart for the Türkiye-Syria Business Council. They agreed with our view and said they would determine the counterpart as soon as possible. This was one of the most concrete outcomes for DEİK.”
Olpak concluded by stating that some matters have the potential to progress quickly:
“We can move forward with trade quite rapidly, but we need to understand that investments will take more time. Some idle, non-operational facilities can be quickly activated, and similar operations from Türkiye can be transferred here, but for investments to be built from scratch, certain conditions must first be established.”