al-Thawra: Minister of Economy highlights achievements

Syria's Minister of Economy Amer Lutfi expressed hope that the EU-Syria association agreement will be finally signed over the next few months.

Lutfi said in an interview with Syrian daily al-Thawra that the public sector had played a very important role in the past period and greatly helped build the national economy, adding that it is now in need to a restructuring process to match up with economic changes.

He said the participation of the private sector in the overall economic development had gradually increased, particularly over the past decade, and now it exceeds 60 percent of the gross national product in Syria.

The Minister added that the government has been taking suitable economic steps through restructuring of the banking system and building a developed banking mechanism to allow foreign banks to open branches in Syria.

He said that the transitional period of the EU-Syria association agreement would extend to 12 years, and it would be good for the Syrian economy to rehabilitate itself and create suitable frameworks for modernizing the laws and secure a smooth flow of goods between the two sides.