Industry Minister Discusses Difficulties FacingIndustrial Establishments

Damascus, (ST) – Minister of Industry Ahmed Al-Hamo and Minister of State for Organization Affairs Salwa Abdullah discussed here yesterday with the Board of Directors of the Damascus Chamber of Industry the difficulties facing the owners of industrial establishments and ways to overcome these difficulties and finding mechanisms to ensure the continuation of the industrial production process and to increase the contribution of the industrial sector to the gross domestic product.

Talks focused on to address the difficulties facing the industrial work under the current circumstances, the war on Syria and the unilateral economic measures imposed by the Western countries on the Syrian people, presenting suggestions and recommendations for addressing them and alleviating them through dealing with non-performing loans, financing, lending and settlement of investment law.

The meeting reviewed the procedures, legislations and decisions issued recently on the revitalization of the industrial sector and the approval of the amendment of the preferential advantage added to the price of the Syrian bidder in the external tenders for the public sector when comparing its offer with a non-Syrian exhibitor, to 15% instead of 10%.

The meeting dealt with a number of draft legislative instruments that were submitted by the Ministry of Industry and are currently being studied by the competent committees of the Cabinet and rescheduling debts of private sector establishments, exemption of raw materials and production inputs by 50 percent of the customs duties owed by them in favor of industrial facilities.

The Minister of Industry stressed the importance of periodic meetings with the chambers to identify the actual and operational reality and positive implications of the procedural decisions taken by the government in the field of supporting the national industry.

For her part, Minister Abdullah pointed to the importance of continued cooperation and coordination between the government and the industrial chambers in all issues related to the concerns and problems of industrialists in order to find appropriate solutions to them and enable the industrial sector to take its leading role as a locomotive for the development of the rest of the economic sectors.

For his part, the Chairman of the Damascus Chamber of Industry and Rural Development Samer Al -debs noted the recent measures, resolutions and legislations that contributed to overcoming the obstacles of industrial work. He called for speeding up the legislation before the committees aiming at finding an appropriate mechanism to solve the problem of non-performing loans for industrialists in order to return the rotation of the production wheel and provide possible facilities to support the national industry.

Sh. Kh.