Cabinet Passes Draft Law on Industrial Cities

DAMASCUS, (ST) –  The Cabinet, in its current session under the chairmanship of Dr. Wa’il al –Halaqi, condemned the terrorist escalation that took place in al –Mazra’ and al -Qaboun in Damascus and some other areas, resulting in the death of innocent people, casualties and damages that hit infrastructure,  services, buildings, public and private enterprises.

The Cabinet said that this escalation reflects the bankruptcy of armed terrorist groups following the successes achieved by the Syrian Arab army in the face of these groups.

“The escalation of terror in the last few days practiced by terrorist groups confirms the responsibility of these groups for the continuation of violence and bloodshed and reflects their insistence on disrupting the efforts and initiatives aimed at resolving the current crisis through dialogue, political and peaceful means,” the Cabinet said.

Deputy Prime Minister for Services Affairs, Minister of Local Administration, eng. Omar Ghalawanji, briefed the Cabinet on the reality of the service situation, especially health services, water, electricity, transport and communications, explaining that these services are available in all areas.

Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs and Minister of Internal Trade and Consumer Protection, Dr. Qadri Jamil, reviewed the reality of economic situation in its various aspects, availability of essential goods and foodstuffs in local markets.

Minister of Health, Dr. Saed al –Nayef, talked about the health situation and the damage that affect the work of hospitals and health units, stressing that the ministry is following the situation and working to ensure the business requirements and provide its requirements of medicines and technical equipment.

The Cabinet discussed the reality and the mechanism of transferring oil products, transportation costs by tanks and decided to form a committee including the Ministries of Internal Trade and Consumer Protection, Local Administration, Oil and Mineral Wealth in order to study these costs in light of the reality.

The Cabinet passed a draft law on amending some articles of the decrees /26/ 2003/ /57/ 2004/ concerning the creation and investment of the industrial cities.

The bill aims to give flexibility in making industrial cities, increase the representation of industrialists and involve craftsmen in the membership of boards of directors and further stimulate workers in the industrial cities, enable them to collect fees for services by the financial law for administrative units and deal the situation of troubled facilities.

Sh. Kh.