Saudi Arabia and Syria signed several important agreements on Saturday during a big event in Damascus. A total of 80 agreements have been sealed under the leadership of Saudi Investment Minister Khalid Al-Falih. The total value of these agreements is said to be 40 billion Saudi Riyals i.e. approximately 10.67 billion dollars. Its purpose is to support the Syrian economy and strengthen trade relations between the two countries. This investment mainly focuses on aviation and telecom sectors.
What is the plan for air travel and airport?
A large part of this investment will be used to improve Syria’s aviation sector. A consortium led by BinDawood Investment Group will develop Aleppo International Airport. An investment of 7.5 billion riyals has been fixed for this. This project will be completed in several phases and will improve the facilities there.
Another big news is that it has been agreed to launch a new low-cost airline “Nas Syria”. It will be a joint venture in which Syrian will have 51% stake and Saudi budget airline Flynas will have 49% stake. It is expected that this airline will start flying by the last quarter of 2026. Along with this, funds will also be given to upgrade the entire navigation radar system for Syrian airspace.
There will also be improvement in telecom and water facilities
Saudi Telecom Company (STC) will work to improve internet and communication services in Syria. Under the project named “Silk Link”, fiber optic cables will be laid and data centers will be built. More than 3 billion riyals will be spent on this work, which will bring a big change in the speed and connectivity of the internet. At the same time, Riyadh Cables Group will take over the responsibility of modernizing and running the factories of the Syrian Cables Company.
Apart from this, an agreement has also been signed between ACWA Power and the Syrian Energy Ministry to solve the water problem. In this, work will be done on the project of desalination of sea water. Its capacity will be approximately 1.2 million cubic meters per day. Besides, three separate agreements have also been signed for the real estate sector. All these works will be supervised by a Syrian-Saudi Business Council.