Syria: a merging agreement with the German loans bank

Syria has signed a merging agreement with the German rebuilding loans Bank at a sum of 476,595, 500 Marcs to be refunded on the ground of 30 installment every six months.

On the Syrian side the agreement was signed by the minister of state for planning Issam al-Zaem, whereas the German aide was signed by the director general for international relations at the ministry of agriculture Helmut Gaujist.

Some 70 million German Marc of the agreement's total sum will be used in the area of changing the debts for projects on protection and preservation of the environment, poverty- fighting projects and educational projects.

This agreement, however, was prepared between the governments of the two countries in the course of the agreement to merge debts Syria has to pay for Germany, signed in Damascus in November 2000, following the visit held by the German Chancellor Shoudher to Syria.

The agreement has eased down elimination of the debts problem suspending between the two countries, ending the German reservations on the activity of the European Investment Bank in Syria. A matter which has recently enabled Damascus to get loans exceeded USD 163.5 million to be used to improve the performance of the electricity network in the country through building several transformer stations and erecting new lines for transporting electricity.