Noon, the e-commerce platform which competes with Amazon in the UAE, plans to launch operations in Syria, its co-founder Mohamed Alabbar has said.
“The beautiful thing about Noon Syria is that it has proven that the human talent in Syria is truly something special. And you are the proof. Hopefully, other companies will see this video of mine … and open offices in Syria,” Mr Alabbar said in a video posted on social media platform X on Sunday.
“You are the nucleus that proves that, yes, opening offices and working in Syria ensures sustainability for our companies and benefits the people of this country, whether in education or income level.”
He added that Syria has proven “through the presence of Noon … that the best technology in the world can still emerge from hardships”.
Noon, which was co-founded in 2017 by Emaar Properties’ chairman Mr Alabbar and Saudi sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund (PIF), operates in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman, Qatar and Egypt.
Investment pledges
The latest announcement builds on $18 billion in pledges of investment the Dubai-based billionaire entrepreneur has made in the past week.
The Emaar founder is also planning to invest as much as $18 billion in Syria in a variety of projects as the country tries to attract investment to rebuild its economy.
The Dubai businessman is assessing projects for potential investment 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 last week, quoting Mr Alabbar.
“In my real estate business, I think it's an amazing opportunity because the cities of Latakia or Damascus have not had any real estate expansion. I think it is time for somebody like me to come in and put my teeth in, and I'm really very positive about everything that I see in Syria,” Mr Alabbar told The National in Damascus.
Investors from across the Gulf nations are rushing to Syria to help grab early opportunities to build the war-battered economy of the country. The US has already removed its Syria sanctions programme by executive order and Congress repealed the Caesar Act in December, paving the way for investments in the country. The EU also removed economic sanctions in May last year.
Syria's Central Bank is now pursuing a sovereign credit rating for the first time, as it seeks to tap into global capital markets and build growth momentum in an economy that has been starved of investment for decades.
Market potential
The UAE and Syria convened their first bilateral business forum in Damascus last 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.
Mr Alabbar, who was part of the business delegation, also pointed out investment potential in Syria's tourism sector as Damascus tries to revive the once thriving tourism sector.
“It is possible within five years to raise the number of tourists visiting Syria to eight million, which will reflect positively in 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.
