Good evening, Your Royal Highness. Thank you for your presence at this exceptional session. Thank you, Your Excellencies. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen.
We are starting an exceptional session for FII9 called Syria's New Horizon, and the title is: Can Rebuilding Become a Model for Global Cooperation? And it is our privilege and great honor to welcome this evening His Excellency Ahmed Al-Sharaa, the President of the Syrian Arab Republic, who will be in conversation with my brother Abdullah Al-Mudifer, the presenter and columnist of Rotana. My dear Abdullah, the floor is yours.
Peace be upon you all. May you all have a very good afternoon. Welcome, Your Excellency, to Riyadh and to the FII.
I will immediately start my questions because of the limited time we have, and my questions are more than you think.
I will start with Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia's effort and the quick reintegration and reinclusion of Syria in the region and in the world are enormous. Why does Saudi Arabia, in particular, have this kind of keenness on reintegrating Syria in the region and in the world?
In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. In the beginning, Saudi Arabia in this region is of great importance, and with the new vision that is led by His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, Prince Mohammed bin Salman, it is a main driver in the region in terms of economy, as if it is the destination of economy. So the Kingdom is keen on economy, and economy is related to regional security and the strategic security of the region. So there is no doubt that there are ties, and Syria is a main pillar in the regional security of Saudi Arabia.
People have tried to get Syria outside of the general order — to be exporting drugs, to be a lot of tents and conflicts, and a lot of murdering and a lot of killing — and this caused a lot of harm to the region. There is no doubt that Saudi Arabia is aware of all of this, well aware of all of this. And we, through our first visit outside Syria, it was in Saudi Arabia, and we know and we are well aware of the rank of Saudi Arabia's position in the region. So security and safety is related to economic development, and vice versa, and this is what is represented in this region by Saudi Arabia as a pioneering status in the region.
But from the other side, from what you said, what will the world gain if Syria succeeds, and what will the world lose if Syria fails?
The world has witnessed the failure of Syria. In the last 60 years and the last 14 years, people have seen how it is the status when Syria is disordered and exporting conflicts and crisis, exporting the migration of people, and the biggest exporter of kept in the whole world, while it has always been the country of civilization. So people and the whole world have witnessed that and have seen how Syria is generating all of these disasters and crises, which led to many strategic threats to the world, because it has become the place for some of the policies that aim at increasing these instabilities in the region.
So what will the world win if Syria succeeds? Syria is in a very strategic position in the geographical location of the world. She is the gate. Syria is the gate to the east and the Silk Road that is known historically. We have diversity of human resources. Syria has a diverse economy, not depending on just one sector. And through history, we have always found Syria or the Levant area as the main pillar. That's why it was wanted by all of civilization around history.
So Syria has started a new page, opening its doors to the whole world. We're speaking about only 10 months since the liberation, and we have been back to our regional position in a quick manner with the support of all of our Syria-loving countries, starting with Saudi Arabia, led by His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, Prince Mohammed bin Salman. So I do think that the world today will benefit a lot from Syria. Syria will be a main corridor for trade and for goods to the whole world.
The world currently witnesses risks related to the instability and security of supply chains between the east and the west, and also especially the gas, oil supply chains, natural gas supply chains to Europe.
Everyone who is here in this room and this conference wants to explore the investment scene in Syria and where the wind is going. So, Your Excellency, are the winds of investments going towards Syria?
Of course. Syria, within 10 months — in the first 6 months — we have received investments of more than $22 billion. And Syria is one of the countries that came out of the crisis, and it wasn't ready to go in renaissance again. We went out of war and entered in other loops of conflicts and crisis. We saw that there are countries that are still in conflicts and in problems even if wars ended 20 years ago. But in Syria, things were clear. The map was clear. We benefited from all what happened all around us.
The investment opportunities in Syria are abundant, and all the economically interested people in the world can find opportunities in Syria. And Syria — I will not say it will, but it has already started working with all efforts in order to start investing. Syria witnessed 14 years of breakdowns, and each one of them is an opportunity in itself. Every stone that was dismantled will be an opportunity for reconstruction.
Yes, Syria will need efforts and reconstruction, but let's be frank and open here. The environment of investment to be attractive needs new legislations, new regulations that are totally different from the previous ones under the previous regime. There is no doubt the previous regime was expellar for investments, foreign investments, and was also taking part in the internal investments.
So regulations and laws of investment were changed in Syria, and investors have the right to retain their money and get it out of Syria and take the most part of their capital outside of Syria if they need. And the current law is reviewed by McKenzie and other investment authorities like the Ministry of Investment in Saudi Arabia, and it was presented to many economic experts in the whole world. So I think it is one of the most important and the best 10 investment laws in the world. The challenge is in the implementation, and this is the duty that we will be carrying.
Sectors, or maybe let's say opportunities — are there real opportunities currently in Syria, and what are these opportunities that are there on the ground now?
Now Syria is rich with opportunities. People, countries that seek development are in themselves opportunities, in addition to the excellent geographical location that Syria has currently. And in addition to the real estate sector, we have a lot of destruction. This will need reconstruction. We chose reconstruction by investment. Reconstruction through investment. This is our path. We did not choose the path of reconstructing Syria through aids or help. As it is said, teach me how to fish, not how to eat fish.
This is easier for the entities that have mutual interests with Syria. It is easier for them to deal with us this way, and this way we will achieve the help that we need, and we will rebuild our infrastructure. It will be a win-win situation.
So I think Syria — we have the real estate market also in Syria. We are a touristic country. We have the monuments, we have the heritage, we have the desert, we have the mountains, we have the coast, we have the sea. Also we are an agriculture country. Agriculture plays a very important role, and also we have a surplus. In Syria we have 25 million, and we can feed 250 to 300 million people through our agricultural production.
Also Syria, we cannot say that it's an oil country just like GCC countries, but we can say that we have a production that reaches 1 million barrels every day, and sometimes from natural gas for 40,000 square meters, and this is five times what Syria needs internally. Currently, we have large reservoirs of gas in the sea and in the desert as well.
Also, Syria has many logistic services. We're speaking about trade roads. This will need internet extensions, roads in the sea and in land. Also the regional connections with the turbulence that is happening currently and with the importance as trades in the region. This is important. Also the atmosphere in Syria and the weather is good, because imagine that every plane that used to avoid Syrian air, it needed three to four extra, or like a quarter to one hour extra. This is a cost in oil and time.
So I think today it is a historic, a historical opportunity for investors to start investing in Syria. There is a competition with some waiting for some agents. But I think that the opportunity in Syria is enormous. Opportunities can be sufficient for all in Syria.
There are countries — I'm speaking about till the 8th of December — did companies or countries come to Syria to start working there?
There is no doubt there are countries. Big companies from Saudi Arabia came and started investing inside Syria with a total of $7 billion. Also big country companies like UC came to invest in Damascus Airport and in investing in production of oil. And also there are other investments in real estate, roads, housing cities and complexes.
Imagine that Syria for 42 years until today, there's no development in construction. So there is a huge need. The supply is low, and the price of real estate in Syria is similar to that in Tokyo. So this is a huge, enormous opportunity in real estate.
You mentioned Saudi Arabia. Are there any other countries, like Western countries? What are the countries that send companies there to Syria?
Like regional countries. We have the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, we have Qatar, we have the United Arab Emirates, and also there is negotiations with Kuwait and Bahrain, also Jordan, the Jordan as well, in addition to Turkey. They are willing to invest more, and they have companies that partner with some of our companies. And also some US companies partnered with some of the companies that started investing in Damascus. US International Airport, also Aleppo International Airport will be invested in by other companies as well.
There is also regional partnerships. When we started in our first journey in Saudi Arabia, we knew the key.
