DAMASCUS: Syria’s new leaders are endeavor a radical overhaul of the nation’s damaged economic system, together with plans to fireplace a 3rd of all public sector employees and privatising state-run corporations dominant throughout half a century of Assad household rule.
The tempo of the declared crackdown on waste and corruption, which has already seen the primary layoffs simply weeks after rebels toppled Assad on Dec 8, has triggered protests from authorities employees, together with over fears of a sectarian jobs purge.
Reuters interviewed 5 ministers within the interim authorities fashioned by former insurgent group the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS). All described the extensive scope of plans to shrink the state, together with eradicating quite a few “ghost staff” – individuals who acquired paid for doing little or nothing throughout Assad’s rule.
Underneath Assad and his father, Syria was organised as a militarised, state-led economic system that favoured an interior circle of allies and members of the family, with family members’s Alawite sect closely represented within the public sector.
There may be now a significant shift to “a aggressive free-market economic system,” Syria’s new economic system minister, 40-year-old former vitality engineer Basil Abdel Hanan, informed Reuters.
Underneath transitional president Ahmed al-Sharaa, the federal government will work on privatising state-run industrial corporations, which Hanan stated totalled 107 and have been largely loss making. Nonetheless, he vowed to maintain “strategic” vitality and transport belongings in public arms. He didn’t present names of corporations to be offered off. Syria’s principal industries embody oil, cement and metal.
Some state corporations appeared to exist solely to embezzle assets and can be closed, Finance Minister Mohammad Abazeed stated in an interview.
“We anticipated corruption, however to not this extent,” Abazeed stated.
Solely 900,000 of 1.3 million folks on the federal government payroll truly come to work, Abazeed stated, citing a preliminary assessment.
“This implies there are 400,000 ghost names,” Abazeed, an lively 38-year-old, stated in his workplace. “Eradicating these will save vital assets.”
Mohammad Alskaf, the minister for Administrative Growth who oversees public sector headcount, went additional, telling Reuters the state would wish between 550,000 and 600,000 employees – lower than half the present quantity.
The objective of the reforms, which additionally intention to simplify the tax system with an amnesty on penalties, was to take away obstacles and encourage traders to return to Syria, Abazeed stated.
“In order that their factories inside the nation can function a launchpad” for world exports, stated Abazeed, beforehand an economist on the Al-Shamal non-public college earlier than serving as a treasury official within the insurgent stronghold of Idlib in 2023.
IDLIB MODEL
Till sweeping into Damascus within the lightening offensive that ousted Assad, HTS had dominated Idlib as an opposition breakaway province since 2017, attracting funding and the non-public sector with much less pink tape and by clamping down on hard-line spiritual factions.
The brand new authorities hopes for a nationwide improve in overseas and home funding to generate new jobs as Syria rebuilds from 14 years of battle, three ministers informed Reuters.
Nonetheless, to duplicate the Idlib mannequin, HTS should overcome widespread challenges, not least worldwide sanctions that severely impinge on overseas commerce.
Maha Katta, a Senior Resilience and Disaster Response Specialist for Arab States on the Worldwide Labour Group, stated the economic system was at present in no situation to create sufficient non-public jobs.
Restructuring the general public sector “is smart,” Katta stated, however she questioned whether or not it needs to be a high precedence for a authorities that wants first to revive the economic system.
“I am undecided if that is actually a sensible choice,” she stated.
