The Syrian government on Tuesday, February 13, approved a bill to set up a stock exchange, the official Syrian Arab News Agency reported. The bill entrusts the Syrian Chambers of Commerce Union with the task of setting up the "Syrian Stock Market" as a private independent company, SANA added.
The stock exchange will have its headquarters in Damascus and branches in the provinces, the agency added, quoting minutes of the cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Mohamed Mustapha Miro.
The bill will become a law after it gets the Parliament approval and President Bashar al-Assad's signature. The ruling socialist Baath Party last year gave the green light for setting up a stock market and private banks.
Syria stepped up measures to attract investments and reactivate the economy since Bashar al-Assad took power in July last year, after the death of his father, Hafez al-Assad. The Baath party nationalized the banking sector when it seized power in 1963. Syria did not have a stock market at the time, although people used to gather informally in the Damascus old souk to trade shares. —(AFP)
© Agence France Presse 2000
© 2001 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
