Finance

Mohammad Hussein, a controversial man, has been Minister of Finance since 2003. Born in the Deir ez-Zour district in March 1959, he studied economics and began teaching at Aleppo University in 1986. During 1993-2000, he held several academic posts in Jordan and Libya. Author of four books, he began teaching at Damascus University in 2003 and supervised numerous dissertations for Masters and PhD students at the Faculty of Economics. A long-time Baathist, he became a member of the National Command of the Baath Party in 2000 and a member of the central committee of the National Progressive Front (NPF), a parliamentary coalition of leftist parties affiliated with the Baath, in 2002. He currently serves as head of the NPF Economic Bureau. In December 2001, Hussein became Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs and held this job until becoming Minister of Finance in September 2003. Since then he has aroused mixed emotions in Syria’s business community. Some see him as a reformer at heart, a man with initiative and character. Others do not. Excerpts from the interview: Is Syria rich? Do we make more money than we spend? Are our resources greater than our expenditure or have the losses that recently hit our treasury, particularly the oil production, transformed us into a poor country? There are two things that must be taken into account: public revenue and expenditure. I believe that every official in Syria should think about resources before expenditure. Spending money is easy, but the real question should be from where do we get money to finance our spending? We suffer greatly from the diminishing of resources at the Ministry of Finance. There are three sources of money: oil, economic surplus and taxes. Let us discuss each separately. It is no longer a secret that revenue from the oil sector is now in the deficit. In 2006, it reached $157 mil-lion and in 2007, we expect to cover this deficit with $1.3 billion. This means one of our most important resources is now in danger. The second source, surplus from companies and state-run agencies, too suffers from major problems. Those that have surplus, like telecommunications, tobacco and banking, are few. Many agencies can simply no longer provide surplus because surplus comes from revenue.

Like other developing countries in the region, Syria has embarked on extensive reforms since the early 2000s. These reforms have been especially significant in the financial sector. In 2004, a string of private banks were launched in Syria. Following that, insurance companies were established in 2006. As of this year, several exchange companies will be issued permits and will be allowed to operate.