Syria Support Movement solidarity with the Syrian people
from the News Desk at The Cradle, March 3, 2025
Poor electricity supply, a rise in the price of diesel, and the influx of cheap foreign products have devastated domestic Syrian production since Assad’s fall
During the past three months, hundreds of Syrian factories, plants, and workshops have been closed in several governorates as a result of many factors that accompanied the departure of the government of former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, Sputnik Arabic reported on 3 March.
Industrialist Ahmed Anqa revealed that nearly 420 factories, plants, and workshops have been closed in the governorates of Aleppo, Damascus, and its countryside, Latakia, Tartous, and Homs.
In December, militants from the former Al-Qaeda affiliate, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), took power in Damascus.
Anqa cites the lack of security in the Syrian regions as a cause for the closures, noting that unknown gunmen have looted factories in the industrial cities of Sheikh Najjar in Aleppo, Hasiya in Homs, and Adra in the Damascus countryside.
Anqa added that the poor electricity supply has also contributed to the closures.
The new government in Damascus has reduced the number of hours of electricity available for industrial cities. At the same time, the price of diesel for powering generators has increased by 30 percent since the fall of Assad’s government. (No more cheap oil from Iran -jb)
As a result, production costs for Syrian industrialists have skyrocketed.
At the same time, Syria has seen an influx of cheap products from abroad, most notably from neighboring Turkiye, which undercut local Syrian producers.
Anqa says foreign firms export these foreign goods to Syria illegally and do not pay customs fees, while the goods are of poor quality. Foreign firms also take advantage of the difference between the official and black market exchange rate between Syrian pounds and US dollars.
Anqa says that foreign products are priced based on the black-market dollar rate, which is less than the official exchange rate of the Central Bank, in which Syrian products are priced.
The economic crisis Syrians suffer from has been exacerbated by mass layoffs ordered by the new authorities in Damascus.
The Ministries of Health and Education and the administration of Latakia Harbor published the names of 12,000 employees from Latakia Governorate who have been recently dismissed, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported on Monday.
Yesterday, SOHR sources reported that the General Company for Iron and Steel Products had issued a decision to place 500 workers on indefinite leave.
“This caused a state of anger and deep concern among employees who suddenly found themselves without a source of income amid a severe economic crisis,” SOHR stated.
“This has heightened fears that the suspension may be a prelude to even harsher measures in the future.”
Syria TV reported last month that up to half a million Syrians have been or will be laid off from state employment, resulting in a “seismic shift” in the nature of the Syrian state in relation to its citizens.
In January, the new HTS-led government in Damascus announced it was undertaking sweeping internal reforms, including privatizing state-run enterprises and laying off a third of the public sector, as authorities say they are shifting to “a competitive free-market economy.”
In an interview with Reuters, members of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) who are serving as cabinet ministers for transitional President Ahmad al-Sharaa – former ISIS and Al-Qaeda commander who went by the nom de guerre Abu Mohammad al-Julani – say they have a “wide scope” of plans to shrink the state, including removing thousands of “ghost employees.”
“The goal is to balance private sector growth with support for the most vulnerable,” interim Minister of Finance Basil Abdel Hanan told the British outlet.
In February, The New Arab reported revelations from the IMF’s Managing Director, Kristalina Georgieva, indicating that communication had begun between the IMF and Syrian officials “to understand the needs of key institutions in the country, such as the Central Bank of Syria.”
“Syrians should do everything possible to steer clear of the IMF’s debt traps and those of other lenders – whether states or financial institutions. They must strive to avoid the mistakes made by countries that prioritized borrowing over production, exports, and building up their own dollar reserves,” the Qatari outlet added. (sanctimonious advice from the fox guarding the henhouse -jb)
