Investors eye lucrative Syria opportunities after Trump lifts US sanctions
AN end to United States sanctions on Syria is expected to mark a new era for an economy devastated by 13 years of war, opening the way for investment flows from the Syrian diaspora, Turkiye and Gulf states that back the new government.
Business executives, Syria's finance minister and analysts anticipated an influx of capital into the bankrupt economy once sanctions are lifted in line with US President Donald Trump's surprise announcement, notwithstanding the many challenges still facing the deeply-fractured nation.
Billionaire Syrian businessman Ghassan Aboud said he was making plans to invest and expected other Syrians with international business ties to be doing the same.
"They were scared to come and work in Syria due to the sanctions risks. This will completely disappear now," said Ghassan, who lives in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
"I'm, of course, planning to enter the market, for two reasons: I want to help the country recover in any way possible, and second, the ground is fertile: any seed planted today can result in a good profit margin," he said, outlining a multi-billion dollar plan to boost Syrian art, culture and education.
The lifting of sanctions would radically reshape an economy already set on a new course by Syria's new rulers, who have pursued free-market policies and shifted away from the state-led model adopted during five decades of rule by the Assad family.
The US and other Western powers imposed tough sanctions on Syria during the war that spiralled out of protests against Bashar al-Assad's rule in 2011.
Washington kept them in place after he was toppled in December, as it formulated its Syria policy and monitored the actions of the new administration led by interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa, a former al-Qaeda commander.
Saudi Arabia and Turkiye, which both support Sharaa's government, had urged Washington to lift the sanctions.
Saudi Arabia's foreign minister said on Wednesday there would be many investment opportunities once that happened.
The conflict has turned many urban areas to rubble and killed hundreds of thousands of people. More than 90 per cent of the 23 million Syrians live below the poverty line, say United Nations agencies.
"There's a real chance for a transformational change in Syria and the broader region," said Timothy Ash, senior sovereign strategist for emerging markets at RBC BlueBay Asset Management.
Turkish firms and banks were expected to benefit from the lifting of sanctions, said Onur Genc, chief executive officer of financial group BBVA.
"For Turkiye, it's going to be positive because there's a lot of reconstruction needed in Syria. Who's there to do that? The Turkish companies," he said.
Turkiye strongly backed Syria's opposition during the war, which decimated a diverse and productive economy.
It more than halved between 2010 and 2021, official Syrian data cited by the World Bank in 2024 showed. However, this was likely an underestimate, said the bank.
Syria's pound has strengthened since Trump's announcement.
Currency traders said it was hovering between 9,000 and 9,500 to the US dollar on Wednesday, compared with 12,600 earlier this week. Before the war in 2011, it traded at 47.
Syrian Finance Minister Yisr Barnieh said investors from the UAE, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, among others, had been making inquiries about investing.
"Syria today is a land of opportunities, with immense potential across every sector — from agriculture to oil, tourism, infrastructure and transportation," he said.
Watching footage of Trump meeting Sharaa in Riyadh on Wednesday at his Damascus office, Karam Bechara, general manager of Shahba Bank in Syria, described the excitement in the business community. "It's too good to be true," he said.
"We're on the right track now internationally unless something happens in Syria that derails the process," he said.
Imad al-Khatib, a Lebanese investor, said he had accelerated his plans to invest in Syria after Trump's announcement. He is planning a US$200 million waste sorting plant in Damascus.
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