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Syria

Political instability poses a significant threat to future economic development. Foreign investment is constrained by violence, government restrictions, economic sanctions, and international isolation. Syria’s economy also remains hobbled by state bureaucracy, falling oil production, rising budget deficits, and inflation.[190]

Prior to the civil war in 2011, the government hoped to attract new investment in the tourism, natural gas, and service sectors to diversify its economy and reduce its dependence on oil and agriculture. The government began to institute economic reforms aimed at liberalizing most markets, but those reforms were slow and ad hoc, and have been completely reversed since the outbreak of conflict in 2011.

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Al-Hamidiyah Souq in Damascus in 2010

As of 2012, because of the ongoing Syrian civil war, the value of Syria’s overall exports has been slashed by two-thirds, from the figure of US$12 billion in 2010 to only US$4 billion in 2012.

As of 2012, Syria’s oil and tourism industries in particular have been devastated, with US$5 billion lost to the ongoing conflict of the civil war. Reconstruction needed because of the ongoing civil war will cost as much as US$10 billion. Sanctions have sapped the government’s finance. US and European Union bans on oil imports, which went into effect in 2012, are estimated to cost Syria about $400 million a month.

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Syria Export Treemap by Product (2014)

Revenues from tourism have dropped dramatically, with hotel occupancy rates falling from 90% before the war to less than 15% in May 2012. Around 40% of all employees in the tourism sector have lost their jobs since the beginning of the war.

In May 2015, ISIS captured Syria’s phosphate mines, one of the Syrian governments last chief sources of income. The following month, ISIS blew up a gas pipeline to Damascus that was used to generate heating and electricity in Damascus and Homs; “the name of its game for now is denial of key resources to the regime” an analyst stated. In addition, ISIS was closing in on Shaer gas field and three other facilities in the area—Hayan, Jihar and Ebla—with the loss of these western gas fields having the potential to cause Iran to further subsidize the Syrian government.

Transportation:

Syria has four international airports (Damascus, Aleppo, Lattakia and Kamishly), which serve as hubs for Syrian Air and are also served by a variety of foreign carriers.

The majority of Syrian cargo is carried by Syrian Railways (the Syrian railway company), which links up with Turkish State Railways (the Turkish counterpart). For a relatively underdeveloped country, Syria’s railway infrastructure is well maintained with many express services and modern trains.

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Road Map of Syria

The road network in Syria is 69,873 kilometers (43,417 miles) long, including 1,103 kilometers (685 miles) of expressways. The country also has 900 kilometers (560 miles) of navigable but not economically significant waterways

Flag of Syria:

As a result of the Syrian Civil War, there are at least two flags used to represent Syria, used by different factions in the war. The incumbent government of the Syrian Arab Republic led by the Ba’ath Party uses the red-white-black tricolor originally used by the United Arab Republic, while Syrian opposition factions such as the Syrian National Coalition use the green-white-black tricolor known as the ”Independence flag”, first used by Mandatory Syria.

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