Riad Seif criticizes the mobile project
Syria, Economics, 5/24/2001

Independent member of the Syrian parliament Riad Seif has renewed the "mobile" (cellular phone) project in Syria, considering that this project makes the Syrian government loose 346.8 billion Syrian pounds. The total sum gained by the contracting company of profits in the phase of its monopoly of this service in Syria.

In a 7-page study he prepared about this project and had the title " why all these vagueness about cellular contracts," Seif said that he failed to get official documents about this project from the sides concerned despite the fact that he asked for these documents from the deputy Premier for Economic affairs, who, for his part, told him to ask the minister of telecommunications about this matter. And for his part the minister of telecommunications ( according to Seif), showed great objection and " recommended me to give up following up into this matter."

Seif added "he has information and documents that reached me by the ultimate end to the conviction that there is a great damage for our national economy represented in loosing hundreds of billions of Syrian pounds and more technological backwardness in the area of telecommunications and great insult and distortion to Syria's fame in the area of investment."

In the study which he circulated on the two vice presidents and the two deputies for the prime minister, Seif tried to explain the damages to be caused by proceeding in this project in its current form, which Seif considered as a privatization for a sector which is most profitable in the country. He estimated the material losses of the state because of that at 346.8 billion Syrian pounds of the country's presumed revenues and other economic damages that are damaging the " reputation of investment in Syria," because of its far from the " principle of free and equal competition" and technological damages in the delay of the third generation of the cellular for 7 years until the end of the company's monopoly of the contract which expires in 2008.

Several days ago Seif asked at the Syrian PA to form a parliamentary committee to study the cellular contracts in Syria after he had, together with many others, showed doubts in these contracts.

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