Damascus International Fair Opens as Syria Courts Foreign Investment
Nearly 60 countries are represented at the historic trade fair as Damascus seeks to turn sanctions relief into renewed investment and commerce.
President Ahmed al-Sharaa has opened the 63rd Damascus International Fair, using the event to set out his government’s ambitions for reconstruction, foreign investment and renewed trade.
About 1,000 companies and other participants from nearly 60 countries are represented at the fair, which opened under the theme “Syria Rises Again” and will run until September 4.
“After the obstacles were removed and sanctions lifted, we have not yet reached the end,” al-Sharaa said at the opening. “We are at the beginning of a long and sustainable road defined by dignity, revival, reconstruction, development and civilisation.”
The fair comes as Syria’s external economic position changes rapidly. Washington has dismantled its comprehensive sanctions programme and this week removed the country from its list of state sponsors of terrorism, while Damascus has made attracting foreign investment and restoring trade a central part of its economic policy.
Visa and Mastercard also carried out their first international card transactions in Syria this week, days after the US removed the country from its terrorism sponsor list.
First held in 1954, the Damascus International Fair is one of the Middle East’s oldest international trade fairs and was once an important fixture in Syria’s commercial calendar. Al-Sharaa described it as “Syria’s economic memory and its window to the world”.
Al-Sharaa said Syria hoped to recover its role as a bridge between markets and a corridor for trade linking East and West. Its geography between Turkey, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and the Mediterranean has historically given the country a role in regional commerce. The government is seeking to build on that position while attracting foreign capital for reconstruction after nearly 14 years of civil war.
With about 1,000 participants from nearly 60 countries, the fair provides Syrian businesses and institutions with an opportunity to restore commercial relationships and establish new ones. The easing of external restrictions and return of international payment links have begun to remove some of the constraints on international commerce.
Al-Sharaa said the international presence reflected renewed confidence in Syria and its people. His government has made reconstruction, foreign investment and the restoration of international trade central to its economic programme since Assad’s fall.
The fair now gives that effort an international commercial platform at a venue that has been part of Syria’s economic life for more than 70 years.