Measures to Streamline Business Process

DAMASCUS, (ST) – The General Authority for Damascus Chamber of Commerce, during its annual meeting, discussed recently obstacles and problems facing the business process, availability, prices and flow of goods in the markets.

The participants in the meeting indicated to the substantial negative impact of the current crisis and the economic sanctions imposed on Syria to commercial traffic, export and import, and actions taken by offshore companies against Syrian traders, particularly with respect to transfers between banks in addition to the obstacles to the transfer of goods to the Syrian ports and border posts by carriers as well as the risk of theft to these materials and goods on the roads.

The Minister of Economy and Foreign Trade, Dr. Khider Orfali underlined importance of the role of chambers of commerce, especially in the current stage and as a result of conditions imposed on the Syrian economy to help the government and traders to take decisions and actions that are in the service of the citizen, pointing to the government’s continued funding of imports, especially pharmaceuticals and basic commodity.

Dr. Khider Orfali clarified that these funds provided by the central bank, which range from daily one million to 3, 5 million euro are not enough to finance all the costs of import licenses to traders, calling for the use of their sources to provide the necessary funding for their imports in addition to what the Central Bank provides.

The minister noted the efforts made by the members of the Damascus Chamber of Commerce during the crisis and their quest to secure the basic necessities of the Syrian citizen despite of the difficulties to obtain as a result of economic sanctions imposed on the country, calling for the promotion and continued cooperation in all circumstances and in consultation with the chambers of commerce in order to solve problems and to stand up and reduce the effects of the crisis as much as possible.

For his part, Chairman of Damascus Chamber of Commerce Ghassan Qalla’ said that despite the passage of three years of the crisis, but the Syrian market has not complained the absence of any commodity, despite the high prices imposed by changes in the exchange rate, which has doubled to about three times in addition to high costs of shipping, custom fees and transport fares.

He stressed the keenness of the Board of the Chamber to support traders in order to serve the interests of their work and their economic activity to provide more activities and services that elevate the new commercial work and make it more developed and competitive.

Sharif el -Khatib