Emaar founder Mohamed Alabbar is planning to invest as much as $18 billion in Syria in varied projects as Damascus seeks to attract investment to rebuild its economy.
The Dubai businessman is assessing projects worth between $5 billion and $7 billion on the Syrian coast and up to $11 billion in Damascus and its surroundings.
The construction of projects in Syria may start within six months in collaboration with Syrian investors, Sky News Arabia reported on Tuesday, quoting Mr Alabbar.
“In my real estate business, I think it's an amazing opportunity because the city of Latakia or Damascus have never been, have not had any real estate expansion, which I think is the time for somebody like me to come in and put my teeth in, and I'm really very positive on everything that I see in Syria,” Mr Alabbar told The National in Damascus.
The US removed its Syria sanctions programme by executive order in July last year and Congress repealed the Caesar Act in December, paving the way for more investments.
The EU removed economic sanctions in May last year. Syria's Central Bank is now pursuing a sovereign credit rating for the first time, enabling its entry to international capital markets.
Tourism sector
Investing in the tourism sector in Syria is also promising and offers real growth opportunities, Mr Alabbar said, as Damascus tries to revive the tourism sector and attract more visitors to Syria's substantial heritage.
“It is possible within five years to raise the number of tourists visiting Syria to eight million, which will reflect positively on the economic situation,” Mr Alabbar said.
Syria is gradually rebuilding its tourism sector after the civil war and sanctions that isolated it from the global financial system.
At its peak in 2010, Syria attracted 8.5 million tourists, many of them from the West. All that changed in 2011 with the onset of the civil war that killed hundreds of thousands of people and forced millions to flee abroad as refugees.
The new government led by President Ahmad Al Shara is now seeking to rebuild investor confidence, attract foreign direct investments, reform its laws and introduce a revalued currency.
Syria is aiming to attract a total of five million visitors this year, up from about four million Syrian expats, Arab and non-Arab tourists last year, its Tourism Minister Mazen Al Salhani told The National in January.
The UAE and Syria convened their first bilateral business forum in Damascus this week, with a large Emirati delegation of officials and businessmen arriving in the Syrian capital for the first time since the fall of the regime of Bashar Al Assad.
Areas of co-operation
Syria’s Minister of Economy and Industry, Mohammad Al Shaar, agreed to form a Syrian delegation to visit the UAE to get clarity on an investment roadmap. Syria also discussed the areas of co-operation in energy, agriculture, tourism and aviation with the visiting business delegation.
The activation of the Syrian-UAE Business Council, the exchange of experiences in the development of economic and investment laws and legislation, co-operation in the fields of technology, digital transformation, governance and digital payments were also discussed.
UAE companies are interested in obtaining a mobile network operator licence for which applications will close on Friday, Syrian Minister of Communications, AbdulSalam Heikal, told The National.
"We believe this has been an excellent start or restart of the Syrian Emirati business relationship," he said.
The UAE delegation of about 120 members is interested in investing in the agricultural sector, tourism, infrastructure, property development, power and energy, said Talal Al Hilali, chairman of the Syrian Investment Organisation.
Oil exploration
Meanwhile, France’s TotalEnergies, together with its partners QatarEnergy and ConocoPhillips, have signed an initial agreement with the Syrian Petroleum Company for the exploration of Block 3 offshore Syria in the Mediterranean Sea.
“We had a long and fruitful relationship from 1988 to 2011, and we look forward to cooperating with QatarEnergy and ConocoPhillips to assess Syrian offshore exploration opportunities in the Mediterranean Sea,” said Julien Pouget, senior vice president, Middle East and North Africa exploration and production at TotalEnergies.
Before the civil war, Syria produced 380,000 barrels of oil per day and 900 million cubic feet of gas daily, making it the Mediterranean's only significant crude producer. Output fell by about 80 per cent during the war. The Ministry of Energy is seeking more than $30 billion to rehabilitate the oil, gas, electricity and water sectors.
