Public-Private Partnerships Conference Kicks off, al-Dardari: Partnership Will Encourage Investment and Stimulate Growth
Oct 31, 2009
Damascus, (SANA) - Under the auspices of President Bashar al-Assad, the two-day Public-Private Partnerships conference, held under the slogan "Financing Syria's Infrastructure" opened on Saturday morning at the Conferences Palace in Damascus, organized by the British-Syrian Society.
Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs Abdullah al-Dardari noted that Syrian economy witnessed important structural reform during the past stage based on liberating trade, reforming general finance, bolstering the role of the private sector, improving the investment environment, and exposing Syrian economy to outside competition through gradual, carefully-studied steps that take into account the nature of Syrian economy.
He went on to say that the reforms reflected positively on economic indicators in Syria, with 6% increase in growth rate during the past three years and a USD 20 billion increase in the GDP from 2000 to 2008.
Syria moved from relying on petrol and raw materials in its export to exporting products of higher added value, with the participation of the private sector in the GDP increasing to more than 65%, al-Dardari added.
The Deputy Prime Minister pointed out that there are several steps which must be taken to guarantee the sustainability of achieved growth and preserve gains, adding that the next phase will focus on continuing the process of institutional, organizational and administrative reforms.
The next phase will also continue work to create an investment environment suitable to all types of investment establishments, in addition to continuing the reform of the tax system and improving the competence of the financial and banking systems in order to improve Syria's position in the fields of business, investment, governance and international competitiveness, he said.
Al-Dardari underlined the strategic significance of Syria's geographic position, stressing the need for building an advanced infrastructure that can develop in order to allow Syria to play its regional role, which calls for providing large-scale investment that the government alone cannot support, thus calling for partnership between the public and private sectors.
He pointed out that the public-private partnership will help accelerate and increase the participation of the private sector in economy by encouraging local and foreign private investment in all fields, including infrastructure, which will boost growth.
For his part, participating Chairman of the British-Syrian Society Fawaz al-Akhras noted that this conference took months of planning and preparations, adding that the British-Syrian Society held several conferences focusing on economic and financial reform during the past five years.
He said that public-private partnership is a complicated issue, stressing that this partnership must be placed in the proper economic, social and political context in order to allow foreign investments and build the Syrian infrastructure to meet the requirements of the process of modernization and rehabilitation.
Al-Akhras added that the conference will help address important issues and discuss the preparations being made to achieve public-private partnership, noting that this partnership is the cornerstone of the governmental modernization program.
He pointed out that there is no single model for partnership that works in all conditions, which calls for studying the state of Syria and acting accordingly. He also underlined the remarkable leap in Syria's relations with neighboring countries such as Turkey.
In turn, representative of the Aga Khan Development Network, Rahim Aga Khan, affirmed that the conference is an important step for promoting public-private partnership, and that the Aga Khan Development Network will continue to support the development process in Syria.
H. Zain / H. Sabbagh / Kh. Aridi