Riyadh, Ankara to Increase Trade Exchange, Promote Mutual Investments

07:34-30 August 2023 AD ـ 13 Safar 1445 AH

Riyadh, Ankara to Increase Trade Exchange, Promote Mutual Investments

Saudi Arabia and Türkiye have voiced their desire to work to increase the volume of trade exchange and mutual investments.

Saudi Minister of Industry and Mineral Resources Bandar Al-Khorayef affirmed his country’s confidence in Turkish investors, expressing his hope that they would benefit from the opportunities available in his country.

During his current visit to Ankara, Al-Khorayef participated in a Turkish-Saudi roundtable meeting held on Monday evening, in the presence of the president of the Union of Turkish Chambers and Commodity Exchanges, Rifat Hisarciklioglu, and a number of Saudi and Turkish businessmen.

In remarks following the meeting, the Saudi minister stressed that the economic relations between the two countries were at an advanced stage, and have progressed significantly, noting that his visit aims to introduce Turkish investors to opportunities in Saudi Arabia, especially in the industrial and mining sectors.

Al-Khorayef arrived in Ankara on Monday, where he participated in a number of meetings, and signed a memorandum of understanding with the Turkish Minister of Energy and Natural Resources, Alparslan Bayraktar, for cooperation in the field of mining.

For his part, Hisarciklioglu said that the volume of trade exchange between Türkiye and Saudi Arabia was expected to reach $30 billion in the medium and long terms.

According to identical Saudi and Turkish data, the volume of trade exchange reached $6.5 billion in 2022, up from $3.7 billion in 2021.

The Turkish official said that thanks to the current momentum in the bilateral relations, the volume of trade exchange is expected to increase to $10 billion in the first phase, and to $30 billion in the medium and long terms.

He affirmed the readiness of the Turkish business community to engage in projects related to technology, tourism, transportation, and energy, within the framework of the Kingdom’s Vision 2030, pointing to the longstanding and strong economic ties between Riyadh and Ankara.

Hisarciklioglu stated that the volume of Saudi direct investments in Türkiye currently amounts to $2 billion, while Turkish contracting companies have implemented projects worth $25 billion in the Kingdom.

Syria Gets New Cash Shipment from Russia

A view of Syrian central bank, after the ousting of Syria's Bashar al-Assad, in Damascus, Syria, January 12, 2025. (Reuters)

10:33-6 March 2025 AD ـ 06 Ramadan 1446 AH

Syria Gets New Cash Shipment from Russia

A view of Syrian central bank, after the ousting of Syria's Bashar al-Assad, in Damascus, Syria, January 12, 2025. (Reuters)

Syria received a new shipment of its local currency printed in Russia on Wednesday and more shipments were expected in the future, a Syrian government official said.

The cash arrived via plane at Damascus airport on Wednesday and was taken by a convoy of several trucks to the central bank, according to a separate source familiar with the matter, reported Reuters.

Syria began paying Russia to print its currency under a multi-million-dollar contract during the 13-year-old Syrian civil war, after Damascus' previous contract with a subsidiary of the Austrian central bank was terminated due to European sanctions.

It is unclear if the arrangement is now continuing under the same terms. One source familiar with the contract said it was.

Russia backed Syrian autocrat Bashar al-Assad during the war, swaying the conflict with its bombardment of opposition groups including the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham that ousted Assad in a lightning offensive last year.

But Russia quickly moved to maintain its ties with Damascus in the weeks after Assad fled to Moscow, with an eye on keeping its two key bases in the country's coastal region.

A senior Russian diplomat visited Damascus in January and Syrian interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa held a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Feb. 12.

Two days later, Syria received its first shipment of local currency from Russia.

The cash shipments are critical: Syria's war-ravaged economy has slid further in the past months amid a shortage of currency that Syrian officials have attributed in part to delays in the Russian cash shipments, as well as to hoarding of Syrian pounds.

A senior former Syrian official said Russian cash shipments in the hundreds of billions of Syrian pounds (tens of millions of US dollars) used to arrive in Damascus each month. Reuters could not determine exactly how much had arrived on Wednesday, the second such shipment since Assad was ousted on Dec. 8.

The cash crunch has left Syrian depositors struggling to use their savings and has piled pressure on local businesses who are already being squeezed by new competition from cheap imports as the protectionist economy is opened up by the new rulers.

Economists and analysts say Syria's cash shortage is largely behind the currency's strengthening on the black market in the months since Assad fell, while it has also been helped by an influx of visitors from abroad and an end to strict controls on trade in foreign currencies.

The pound on Thursday was trading at around 10,000 per Greenback on the black market, compared to the official central bank rate of 13,000.

It traded at around 15,000 per US dollar before Assad was toppled.

Syrian central bank governor Maysaa Sabreen told Reuters in January that she wanted to avoid printing Syrian pounds to guard against inflation.

The central bank only has foreign exchange reserves of around $200 million in cash, sources previously told Reuters, a huge drop from the $18.5 billion that the International Monetary Fund estimated Syria had in 2010, a year before civil war erupted.

It also holds nearly 26 tons of gold, the same amount it held before the war, the sources said.

Riyadh, Ankara to Increase Trade Exchange, Promote Mutual Investments