Syrian Businessman: Expatriates Keen on Supporting Homeland, Helping Citizens Withstand Crisis Repercussions

 Alleviating the economic and social repercussions of the global terrorist war on Syria has demanded the mobilization of the efforts of all the Syrians inside the country and abroad.

Within this framework, the Syrian expatriates, particularly businessmen, have been keen on supporting their homeland and helping the Syrian people withstand the ongoing crisis by implementing several social and economic activities across the country targeting affected people, including martyrs’ families as well as wounded and displaced citizens.    

Tamer Balbisi, a Syrian expatriate businessman living in Kuwait since 1997, has recently announced that he had a plan to implement small, medium and micro-sized agricultural enterprises in the Syrian Coast area in coordination with the Ministry of Agriculture.

According to Balbisi, the projects, which are to be run by members of martyrs’ families, aim to help ensure permanent income to these families and to make revenues that will go to helping other families and expanding the projects.

In a recent statement to the state news agency (SANA), Balbisi said that the Syrian coast area has charming nature and fantastic tourist elements, so he and other several national expatriates in cooperation with the Tourism Ministry plan to establish some tourist projects in the city of Tartous aiming at supporting citizens with limited income, creating job opportunities and reactivating tourism in that area.

On his activities in Damascus, Balbisi said he has been working in coordination with the government to finance some small shops to help wounded people with permanent disability start a new life. 

Also, work is underway to establish a pharmaceutical factory at Damascus free zone with the help of national expertise and at a capital of USD 4 million, he added, clarifying that the project can employ 200-300 workers and it aims to meet the shortage of medicine in Syria because of the sanctions and the destruction of many pharmaceuticalfactories. He pointed out that production in this factory will hopefully start in February, 2016.

Moreover, Balbisi has carried out several activities in Damascus and Daraa and other provinces to honor martyrs’ mothers and sons. He pointed out that work has also started in coordination with the Syrian government to fix the damage caused by terrorist attacks to schools in different parts of Syria.

Reconstruction

Regarding the reconstruction process in the country and the important role of Syrian expatriate businessmen in this domain, Balbisi said there is continuous coordination between government sides and some Syrian businessmen abroad on preparing a work plan to launch reconstruction in Syria. The start, according to Balbisi, will be in some Damascus neighborhoods, particularly in the areas over which the state has regained control and where security has been restored.

He revealed that he had made contacts with Syrian businessmen in Hungary, Kuwait and other countries for this purpose, stressing that the government should provide necessary facilitations to the expatriates to help them contribute to rebuilding their homeland.

Balbisi went on to say that the Syrian expatriates in Kuwait have carried out several activities that express their love and support to their homeland, referring to a three-month national campaign held there to support the Syrian Pound through transferring commission and interest-free amounts of money to Syria.

It is worth mentioning that in 2014, Balbisi ensured a flight from Kuwait to Damascus and vise versa to help the Syrians cast their ballots in the presidential elections after the Kuwaiti government closed the Syrian embassy and prevented members of the Syrian community to take part in voting.

Balbisi urged all the Syrian expatriates to shoulder their responsibility towards their homeland and to abandon negative ideas in contribution to reconstructing Syria and supporting its economy.  

“It is a national duty to take care of our homeland and to preserve its strength in the face of all who want to destroy it,” he concluded.

Hamda Mustafa