National Committee for Preparing Draft Constitution Discusses Visions organize work mechanism
http://www.sana.sy/eng/361/2011/10/31/378975.htm
Oct 31, 2011
DAMASCUS, (SANA) _The national committee tasked with preparing the draft constitution held its first meeting on Monday, October 31 at 10:00 AM at the committee's headquarters in the former Expatriates Ministry building.
Interview with Tourism Minister: Syria switches to new markets to salvage tourism: minister
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/world/2011-10/31/c_131220691.htm
English.news.cn 2011-10-31 05:26:07
by Hummam Sheikh Ali
DAMASCUS, Oct. 30 (Xinhua) -- Switching to new markets was the most important strategy Syria has lately taken to salvage tourism, the country's second largest source of foreign currency, from inevitable breakdown, a senior Syrian official said.
Lamia Assi, Syrian tourism minister, told Xinhua in an interview that the tourism sector has been enormously hit by the flare-up of unrest in the country in mid March.
In September, the European Union slapped Syria with sanctions that hit six Syrian companies, including Syriatel and its largest private company, Cham Holding, to intensify pressure on President Bashar al-Assad, who has come under withering international criticism for his regime's months-long crackdown on protests.
The sanctions also banned investment in Syria's oil sector, deemed to be Syria's artery for hard currency.
"Of course, the sanctions have negatively and fundamentally impinged on the tourism sector even from the very start of the crisis given the unwarranted measures taken by Western countries, mainly banning their nationals from travelling to Syria and asking those in Syria to leave immediately," Assi said.
"All this has led to a tangible slump in arrivals to Syria, especially from western Europe," she complained.
Following the EU sanctions, Syria has said it would shift to the East for new markets, mainly friendly countries like Russia and China that had vetoed a UN Security Council resolution condemning the Syrian regime for alleged excessive use of violence against protesters.
Assi said the Syrian government is working to make up for the economic recession by shifting to new markets "that haven't espoused any anti-Syria political stance and don't have political agendas."
She said Syria has managed to bring in delegations from friendly countries to get familiar with what is actually happening on ground "away from the media exaggeration made by some TV channels that depict events in the country as if there were a battlefield."
"This shift to new markets is the most important measure that has been lately taken by the Syrian Ministry of Tourism," she said.
She said Syria is bracing itself to host a delegation from China comprised of academics, researchers and journalists.
Assi said tourists who used to come to Syria to visit religious shrines are still coming, stressing the religious tourism has not been affected by the sanctions.
Despite the minister's placations, coupled with other confirmations by senior Syrian officials, including Syrian Prime Minister Adel Safar who had said Sunday that unrest is on the wane, tourism in Syria is still at almost the zero scale and Syrians have started feeling the heat of the economic sluggish.
"It's not getting better at all," said Marwan, a worker at a five-star hotel in Syria, adding: "only a handful of rooms in the hotel that was used to be completely packed with guests, are being booked now."
The Tourism Ministry's statistics show that 8.545 million tourists visited Syria in 2010, including 440,311 European tourists. Most of the tourists came from Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey, with Gulf tourists a close second, followed by Americans and Britons.
Tourism in Syria has become an important source of hard currency in the last few years due to new measures taken by Syrian authorities to encourage this sector of Syria's economy.
A considerable number of private sector tourist companies were set up in the last few years to contribute in promoting tourism in Syria by establishing active tourist relations with international tourist offices and companies.
These companies were given all necessary facilities by the ministry of tourism to bring in foreign tourists.
The most important factor which encourages tourists to come to Syria is the availability of historically valuable sites that are scattered in almost all parts of the Syrian territory.
The country also attracts highly educated European and Asian tourists to visit the country for study purposes.
Syria has introduced a package of reformist measures to quell nationwide protests. The committee that has been recently formed by Assad to write a new constitution for the country will convene Monday in Damascus in line with the process of reforms. Amending the constitution was still a major request by most Syrians.
Also, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem headed Sunday for Doha, Qatar to meet the Arab League ministerial committee in charge with overseeing the situation in Syria, to discuss the best available ways to bring the crisis to a close and embark on dialogue including all spectrums of Syrian society, including the opposition.
Assi believes that economic dialogue is fundamental and is considered the second in importance after the political dialogue.
"We urgently need economic dialogue to settle many controversial issues, such as the government subsidy, labor laws and the issue of dealing with investments," she said, adding: "we need dialogue at least to come up with an economic vision and new, in common, orientations."
وزير الاقتصاد السوري الأسبق يروي قصة أزمة الثمانينات : الحكومة خلطت القمح و الشعير لإنتاج الخبز
Syrian Minister of Economy and former tells the story of the eighties crisis: government mixed wheat and barley for the production of bread (former minister's memoir about Syria's economic difficuties in 1985 - 87)
http://www.aksalser.com/index.php?page=view_news&id=a2c04a298eb116efee8b12cf607f4654&ar=612839403
Sunday - October 30 - 2011 - 13:50:33
Roy and former Syrian Minister of Economy Mohammed Al Emadi, what happened in the eighties of a crisis on Syria and reached for the subsistence of the Syrian citizen, the Government paid for the mixing of wheat and barley.
Emadi and detection, which is one of the most qualified economists in Syria, who was president of the Arab Monetary Fund for Economic and Social Council may call and response of the late President Hafez al-Assad in the eighth of April in 1985 asked him to return to Syria.
And Emadi said that when he was sworn in front of Assad's father, after the assignment again the position of minister of economy said to him, the late President "We are in distress we have to rely on ourselves and our friends out of them, and it must increase the salaries of workers in the state provided that the funding increase from sources that do not lead to undesirable results. We are now working on developing our oil and gas, and during the years we can rely on ourselves and secure our needs, we must take advantage of the Arab funds to finance more of our projects. "
And tells the former minister said the crisis of the eighties, "The economic situation was extremely difficult, regardless of the sanctions that were imposed by some countries, the economy was experiencing difficulty and heavy debt, so we have paid off some debts in phosphates, sheep and vegetables and fruit."
And continues, "in July 1985, for example, published a Manchester United boss in a special report from Washington that the Syrian economy is in serious condition threatening political stability. There were also various articles describing the weakness of agricultural and industrial production, loss of raw materials to run factories and craftsmen and the scarcity of consumer goods in the market and queues waiting for their turn to buy the necessities of life with increased smuggling food and low prices of the currency, and the multiplicity of exchange rates and the widening shadow economy and high rates of inflation. "
He says that "President al-Assad said that frankly, Mr. President, in his guidelines in the People's 27/2/1986, when he said (We are experiencing some economic difficulties we touch all of us must know that it has objective reasons are the lack of balance between resources and expenditure , and between the needs and production, and the implications of the global economic crisis on the countries of the Third World and we are of it). "
However, Syrian Economic goes, "this causes difficulties for our own, especially the non-compliance with the comprehensive planning, and poor follow-up, and diminished sense of responsibility, and the failure to employ all available resources in the country properly."
Bread crisis .. No stock only for a few days
And the minister said earlier that "the crisis has reached to the top of ceramic in late 1987, pointing out that the call and response in the middle of the night by the Minister of Supply says to him that the stock of flour and wheat is not enough only for a few days, and he traded with the Prime Minister referred him to ".
And "It was great that my work was at the Arab Fund enabled me to document my relationships with many banks and institutions that deal with the Arab Fund, in addition to one of the brothers, who was from the beginning in helping us secure the quantities of wheat."
Communications and did not take a long time, says Al Emadi, until May God the Almighty to turn a ship loaded with Baloqmah, bound to one of the Mediterranean countries, to the Syrian ports. This was the citizen who helped us confirm our good and originality, of course I understand that the working rights for the benefit of his own, but that if he was serving his country at the same time.
And continued his story by saying "The next day a meeting of the President of the Economic Commission with those responsible for the wheat and flour in the Ministry of Supply. Suggested that confuse wheat by twenty percent barley, and we had significant amounts of barley. Vtm object to that, and I understand the reasons for the objection .. But I said that day for the present I am in prayer older, I remember that the bread (the document), which we eat during World War II was a brown, because he was confused not barley alone, but all other grains that are available at the time, and we eat and we thank God for him. "
"Replied the Director General in charge of the subject that does not assume responsibility to take such a decision, I told him I take this responsibility, as the only solution to the killer is not to provide bread for the people, because the ship will not arrive until after the days, and can not keep people without bread, and the decision was taken and implemented, "says Al Emadi.
And Al Emadi said that some of our embassies abroad had threatened to cut off electricity, phone, or even taking them out of the headquarters tenant because of a lack of funding by the Syrian government.
تعيين الدكتور " حسن حزوري " مديرا لمركز البحوث والدراسات الإستراتيجية في جامعة حلب
The appointment of Dr. "Hassan Huzouri" Director of the Center for Research and Strategic Studies at the University of Aleppo
http://www.aksalser.com/?page=view_articles&id=b11a9d1e09d7525d91735d2d7aa1c0e7&ar=105319690
Monday - October 31 - 2011 - 12:53:30
Issued by the Minister of Higher Education Dr. Abdul Razak Sheikh Issa decision, on Sunday, No. 814 provides for the appointment of Dr. Hassan Ahmed Huzouri director of the Center for Strategic Studies and Research at the University of Aleppo.
And the center was the latest decision of the Council for Higher Education No. 96 Date 15/01/2007, and aims, as set out in Article II to, the production of studies and research strategy, strengthen national capacity to develop policies and strategies of the Court and to find solutions to the obstacles and difficulties facing the process of comprehensive development, and contribute to the analysis of the issues and problems of a strategic nature that are the subject of public interest in local, Arab and international levels, and provide expertise and advice in the areas of political, economic, social and cultural rights, and aims to carry out studies and applied research field to meet the needs of public and private entities.
And function of the center, according to what specified in Article III of the resolution a specialized scientific studies to contribute to the advancement of developmental destruction, and to conduct research and field studies in different areas, and carrying out the studies forward-looking, and holding seminars and scientific conferences and participation in various scientific activities within the Arab Republic and outside the Syrian, and the establishment of panel discussions on various phenomena that give rise to public attention, through follow-up of events and developments, and to provide a database of the Center.
It also falls to the Center to publish a magazine center (Journal of Strategic Studies) magazine periodical specialized research and the Court, is concerned with the research and study authentic specialized, and that will assist the Centre in achieving the desired objectives of its creation, and dissemination of published research results and studies undertaken by the Centre through periodicals, books and specialized publications, and monitoring and the translation of strategic studies and foreign research important, particularly relating to the Syrian Arab Republic and the Arab world.
It is noteworthy that Dr. Hassan Huzouri, is the first director of certain of the center, a faculty member in the Faculty of Economics at the University of Aleppo, holds a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Sorbonne, the second in Paris in 1992, and previously served the task of Head of Department of Banking and Finance in the Faculty of Economics for four years, from 2007 until 2011, and studied in a number of universities of Jordan and Saudi Arabia during the period from 1999 to 2006, the Chairman of the Association of Economic Sciences - Aleppo branch, is currently an economic adviser to the Aleppo Chamber of Commerce, as it is economic advisor to the site Aks al-Ser.
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