Syria’s Finance Minister Mohammed Yisr Barniyeh told Asharq Al-Awsat that salary support provided by Saudi Arabia and Qatar “will start to be disbursed next month.”
Saudi Arabia and Qatar earlier announced a joint initiative with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to provide $89 million in aid for Syria to help preserve basic public services.
The three-month package, funded by the Saudi Fund for Development and the Qatar Fund for Development, aims to ensure the continuity of essential government functions by helping cover part of public-sector salaries.
Speaking to Asharq Al-Awsat on the sidelines of the “Rebuilding Syria: A Journey Toward Stability and Prosperity” session during the IMF and World Bank meetings, Barniyeh said: “We are deeply grateful to the Gulf states—Saudi Arabia and the State of Qatar—for all they have done for Syria. We appreciate and value this support, whether in investments, knowledge transfer, or the salary support that was approved last week and will take effect next month.”
He added: “We also thank the United Arab Emirates and any country that helps us. We are truly grateful for this assistance, and I believe Syrians will remain loyal to all who have stood by them.”
During the session, Barniyeh presented what he called a “pragmatic reform agenda,” centered on “restoring confidence with the private sector, maintaining fiscal discipline, and shifting toward targeted subsidies,” while asserting that “sanctions are now behind us.”
He pointed to the return of more than one million Syrians since the beginning of the year, along with 1.7 million internally displaced people who have gone back to their homes, describing these as signs of “renewed hope.”
The reform plan includes streamlining the tax system from 33 types to just three or four, restructuring public debt through settlements with creditors, and reforming state-owned enterprises on a case-by-case basis.
Barniyeh said the government would not finance projects that could be carried out by the private sector. “Our philosophy is that the private sector should lead economic growth and investment,” he said.
He added that Syria had established a “Syrian Development Fund” to finance infrastructure and reconstruction projects, while also working with the World Bank to launch a “multi-donor trust fund” aimed at attracting support from donors and international institutions.
Barniyeh revealed that Syria had cleared all its obligations to the Central Bank of Syria. “The balance is zero, and we have a budget surplus,” he said, adding that he had pledged not to finance any future deficit through the central bank.
He confirmed that the government is working to “modernize the laws regulating investment, companies, labor, and taxation” to create a more attractive environment for private and foreign investors.
On the financial sector, Barniyeh said his ministry is conducting a “comprehensive assessment of both the banking and non-banking sectors” as part of a plan to reform the capital market and insurance sector. He noted ongoing cooperation with Saudi Arabia’s Tadawul (Saudi Exchange) to develop the Damascus Securities Exchange.
“The goal is to upgrade the Syrian market to emerging-market status within eight years,” he said, adding that new regulations will soon be issued to “open the market to foreign investors and expand available financial instruments.”
