Syria gets less than 1% of the Arab states share of foreign investments

Foreign investments licensed in 1999 in Syria and governed under the law no. 10 on encouraging investment of 1991, reached only US $ 47.6 million, representing a sum of 17% of total investment licensed in 1999. These investments are distributed, according to sectors as follows; Transformation industry 32.8%; agriculture 27.6%, transport 22.7%, and real estate services 16.9%.

As for geographical distribution of these projects, French investment occupied the first grade, representing 36.4% of total foreign investment, followed by German, British, Dutch, and Japanese investments.

However, the report on the investment climate in the Arab states issued by the Arab establishment for investment guarantee said that Syria's share does not exceed 0.77% of the flow of foreign investments to the Arab states in 1999, which reached US $ 6.2 billion.

The report stressed that the share of the Arab states of direct foreign investment in 1999 which reached US $ 827 billion was also small.