May 2008

Fourteen environmental projects will share a total of $90,000 in grants from Ford Motor Company this year, as part of the companies Conservation & Environmental Grants program in the GCC and Levant countries. The winning projects were chosen by an independent panel of judges comprising nine conservation and environmental experts and academics from the participating countries. The 14 projects were chosen from six countries and the grants ranged from US$1,600 to US$18,000. Since its inception in the region in 2000, the Ford Motor Company Conservation & Environ-mental Grants have awarded a total of US$690,000 to nearly 90 projects. One of the recipients of the 2007-2008 Ford Motor Company Conservation & Environmental Grants was Syria. One of the projects that won in Syria include reforestation of Mount Saydeh, which was given a grant of $6,000. Another project was Flora Syria Online, submitted by Muwafaq al-Cheikh, in the category of Natural Environment, getting $2,000. A third project targeted the greening of arid areas in coastal mountains, receiving $5,000. The big award went to a cleanup volunteer group from Latakia, who worked on beautifying their city, and got $16,000.

Industrial cities are often regarded as the backbone of any country’s economy. They have become indispensable at attracting investments, upgrading industries, and preserving the environment. Trials with industrial cities have been very successful in certain Arab countries, like Egypt. Although industrial cities are fairly new to Syria, they are bound to have a remarkable place on the Syrian industrial map. Al-though young, they have already contributed to growth rate, which can be noted as the volume of investment in industrial zone-projects has reached 150 billion SP, or approximately $3 billion USD.

Mohammad Hussein, the Minister of Finance, spoke at a workshop on reforming the financial sector in Syria, saying that revenue from customs has increased, although for basic material, customs have been lowered to 1%. He added that customs computerization is underway and will be complete before the end of 2008. Hussein also noted that the insurance sector witnessed a 25 % increase last year compared to 2006, with the insurance market amounting to 9.5 million SP. The Minister affirmed that the Syrian General Insurance Company is still a main player in the market and that it is witnessing remarkable development. He also said the insurance market would amount to $500 million in the upcoming years. He stressed that his Ministry’s priority is administrative re-form, focusing primarily on tax administration.

The Syrian-Turkish Business Council met in Damascus in April 26-27, 2008, bringing over 700 participants together at the Four Seasons. Speaking at the opening, Prime Minister Mohammad Naji Otari said that this event only adds to the already strong bilateral relations between Syria and Turkey. These relations, he noted, were based “mutual will and determination, proximity, history, and cultural morals.” Speaking at the event, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan praised all measures taken by the Syrian government, reminding of the steps taken by his government back in 2003, where national income increased from $230 billion to $659 billion. “Our exports” explained the Turkish leader, “they were at $36 billion and then reached $114 billion, over a five year period. “This easily can be done in Syria” he added, “all you need is will power, and only then will you be able to extract milk even from the male goat! We are willing to put our hand in yours in this issue.” Erdogan added that bilateral trade between Syria and Turkey, which reaches $2 billion this year, is not enough and must be increased.

MABCO, the authorized dealer of NOKIA, has now become an authorized dealer of ACER as well in the Syrian market. Customers will enjoy a wide range of guaranteed and warranted products with a huge package of integrated solutions and high-tech services in one brand. ACER products also provide practical solutions that save the headache of compatibility of parts. MABCO will enhance these services by providing maintenance centers to serve its customers in all governorates. These centers shall always provide necessary products and accessories, and will be located in major showrooms in Damascus and Aleppo.

The Arabs first heard of Jimmy Carter when he was elected president of the United States in November 1976. They were skeptical at first, thinking he would pursue Middle East policies no different from those of former secretary of state Henry Kissinger, which were very sympathetic to Israel. Making things more worrying was that Carter confessed that prior to his election, he had never met an Arab. The new president, however, promised to be different from previous American leaders. From day one, he made it loud and clear that he did not see the world through the narrow alliances of the Cold War; the world was not “you are either with us or with the Soviet Union.” That is why he invited Crown Prince Fahd of Saudi Arabia, Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin, King Hussein of Jordan, Hafez al-Assad of Syria and Anwar Sadat of Egypt to visit him in Washington. All of them – with the exception of Syria’s Assad - responded promptly. Rabin, himself a Washington insider for nine years, was furious at the new US president. Carter was taking Middle East initiatives without clearing them first with Israel. Even worse, he was promising statehood to the Palestinians and calling for an end to Syrian-US tension. Carter believed that just like the Israelis, the Arabs had the right to live and hope. They too suffered. They too existed and feared. They had legitimate interests, he claimed, that needed to be respected to bring peace to the Holy Land. These views were shared by his new secretary of state, Cyrus Vance, and national security advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski. It has been over 15 years since Carter last visited Damascus as a private citizen, during the era of former president Hafez al-Assad. Before that, when Assad turned down the Washington invitation, the two men had met in neutral Geneva at the Intercontinental Hotel on May 9 1977. That seven-hour meeting was opened with a one-hour speech by the Syrian president, on reaching peace in the Middle East, to which Carter nodded and attentively took notes. At the press conference, Carter reaffirmed his support for a Palestinian homeland, and praised cooperation with Syria.

It is clear from a Western point of view that there are many cons to engaging Hamas in a substantive dialogue. Most countries in the West have labeled Hamas as a terrorist organization and thus believe that engaging Hamas would give legitimacy to its view towards Israel.

The Arab World still hopes, with due right, that either Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama will make it to the White House in 2009. The Arabs are afraid that John McCain will be nothing but another George W. Bush. To what extent is the ‘McCain Scare’ justified?

The plan for a “Mediterranean Union” presented to the EU 27 nation summit in Brussels represents only a shadow of the grand design for the initially proposed union of French president Sarkozy. The initial French proposal, previewing the creation of a forum grouping only EU member states with a Mediterranean coastline, Euro-Med partner states and non-EU member states with a Mediterranean coastline, was not met with great enthusiasm since its first announcement in 2007 from the Northern and Eastern EU member states as well Euro-Med partner states like Turkey. Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel was particularly skeptical, and announced that the realization of the French blue print would siphon off common EU funds for the beneit of only a few EU member states and their former colonies, leading to a split of Europe in traditional spheres of influence. Refusing the idea that the southern EU member states should largely take over the EU responsibilities in the Mediterranean, Berlin’s strong resistance forced Paris to drop the initial proposal’s most controversial features. The European Council invited the executive European Commission at the Brussels summit to draft proposals for launching the new Union at the summit in Paris this July. The Euro-Med partner countries were significantly not consulted before the Brussels summit. While the Sarkozy initiative succeeded in pushing the Mediterranean issue back on top of the EU’s agenda, a development that is surely to be welcomed, doubts remain if the EU will use the occasion to integrate the different policies of the Euro-Med partnership, the southern European Neighborhood Policy and the ideas of a new Mediterranean Union into a single coherent European Mediterranean policy. The outline for the

I recall a conversation between the Syrian minister of transportation and myself back in 1997. I had asked if it were feasible to privatize Syrian Airlines. The answer was an emphatic, “What are you talking about? Have you lost your mind?” Back then, privatizing was taboo in Syria. Today, more than 10-years later, it’s time to break that taboo. The current economic reforms and the fast-growing aviation market of the Middle East make it a must for Syrian Airlines to move forward. The company is now cornered between developing markets, US sanctions, and the heavy-handed Syrian legislation, making it very difficult to cope with market change.