“We have no intention whatsoever now to borrow. We focus on to be disciplined. Of course, I'm not excluding borrowing down the road, but now we have no intention whatsoever. We want to make sure that our in-house is in order. We might borrow only for strategic projects where private sector find it not attractive,” Yisr Barnieh told Rudaw on the sidelines of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank annual meetings in the American capital.
The World Bank Group announced in May that Saudi Arabia and Qatar had paid off Syria’s approximately $15.5 million debt to the bank, making Damascus eligible to receive new loans.
The World Bank suspended operations in Syria 14 years ago, when the civil war erupted. That war and years of sanctions have left Syria’s infrastructure crumbling and its economy in tatters, providing challenges for the country’s new rulers.
With most of the international sanctions lifted on Syria, the country wants to attract foreign investment. The minister said he was hopeful that more major American firms will invest in his country.
“I think our relationship to the US is improving day after day. We are trying to show that we are a serious partner. We have serious reform programs. We are working close with them to show them that we have discipline in our public finance. We are doing a lot of reform to enhance integrity of our financial sectors. And these are the main messages that the US is concerned about and that will help facilitate the relationship,” said the Syrian minister.
"We are very optimistic about the Syria-US relationship and we are very optimistic about seeing American companies, American banks, American organizations in Syria. In fact, in the last few weeks we've been meeting with so many U.S. organizations, MasterCard in Syria, I'm meeting VISA tomorrow, all these major banks. We are in close discussions so we will see more big American business in Syria,” he added.
