The Syrian Arab Republic is a multi-resource economy. It depends on agriculture, industry, trade, tourism and services. The industrial sector
accounts for 34 % of the Syrian GDP and the industrial production growth rate is about 2.30% (2009 estimation).
Syria’s industrial base is fairly diversified and the private sector has begun to play a larger role in the textile, paper, chemicals and other industries. And lately, the Syrian government urged the industrial enterprises to sign contracts with engineers and chemists ; the purpose is to give more weight to the issue of quality in production and to mandate conformity to International Standards.
Recently, the paper and board production growth witnessed a move of back and forth following international and national obstacles (global crisis impact, fuel oil price, dumping the market… only to name some).
But new techniques and improvement strategies were set aiming at reviving and strengthening the mills position among others in the Middle East. These techniques will help the country in its quest to attract foreign investment to develop its economy.
Commenting on that, studies revealed that ; as the global recession is moving back slowly, the Syrian real GDP growth is estimated to rise to 3.5% by the end of 2010 and to reach 3.9% by the end of 2011 (IMF est.)
With these estimations given above, followed in the next few pages by the views of Messrs. Ammar Kanbarieh and Hassane Debs on the actual status of the paper and board industry in Syria, we are going to deduce where the industry is standing nowadays and how to cease opportunities.