Syria signs $14 billion in investment deals, including metro, airport projects

Syria has signed $14 billion worth of investment agreements on Wednesday in a ceremony attended by incumbent President Ahmad Al-Sharaa.

The agreements include a $4 billion deal signed with a consortium led by Qatar’s UCC Holding to redevelop Damascus International Airport and a $2 billion Damascus Metro deal with the UAE’s national investment corporation. 

Other agreements include a $2 billion deal for the Damascus Towers with Italy-based UBAKO, and other real estate projects such as Baramkeh Towers and Baramkeh Mall.  

Talal al-Hilali, Syrian Investment Authority’s direct general said that the meeting is a clear declaration that “Syria is open to investment [and] determined to build a prosperous future,” Syrian state news agency Sana reported. 

"These projects will make a qualitative shift in infrastructure and economic life in Syria” he added.

The airport project will be executed under a build-operate-transfer model in five phases, ultimately reaching a capacity of 31 million passengers annually. The initiative also includes developing the main access road to the airport, and a $250 million financing deal to purchase up to 10 Airbus A320 aircraft for the country's national carrier. 

US Special Envoy to Syria Thomas Barrack, who attended the ceremony, expressed the United States’ desire to strengthen Damascus as a center of trade and prosperity.

“The path to recovery must begin with the fits and starts of building a foundation of security and stability, then followed by government systems and ultimately enterprise and prosperity,” he wrote on social media platform X.