The Minister of Economy and Trade, Amer Al-Bassat, announced that Lebanon and Syria are opening a new page in their bilateral relations, stressing the importance of the timing of this step in light of the rapid changes taking place in the region.
Al-Bassat explained, in statements to Al-Sharq Bloomberg, that the repercussions of the Corona pandemic, adjustments to customs tariffs, the war with Iran, and the ongoing tensions in the sea lanes led to redrawing the regional economic map and changing supply chains, which highlights the strategic importance of land trade routes through the two countries towards the Mediterranean ports.
The Minister stressed that the economic components of Lebanon and Syria are characterized by complementarity, not competition, indicating that these transformations open broad horizons for building a partnership based on the integration of ports and industrial, financial and marketing expertise.
In a related context, the capital, Beirut, hosted the Lebanese-Syrian Investment Forum under the auspices of the President of the Republic, Joseph Aoun, with the participation of about 400 businessmen from the two countries, in addition to a high-level Syrian government delegation that included the ministers of economy, transport, agriculture, health, and tourism. This event is the first of its kind since the inauguration of a new phase in bilateral relations, clearing the page of long years of tension and ambiguity.
For his part, in an interview with Al-Sharq Bloomberg, the Syrian Minister of Transport, Yarab Badr, called for improving economic relations to go beyond simply using ports for transit and import goods, to establishing a joint production and marketing base.
Badr stated that the forum is examining partnership opportunities between investors and employing integration between primary resources, financing, marketing and industrial capabilities, export capacities and ports of the two countries, with the aim of transforming the region extending from the eastern Mediterranean all the way to the Syrian desert and beyond into a regional center for joint production and marketing.
