Syria is discussing financing from Saudi Arabia for projects worth about 1.5 billion dollars over the coming months and expects to sign a first package worth 406 million dollars within days, Finance Minister Mohammed Yasser Baranieh told Arab News in Bangkok. The talks are with the Saudi Development Fund, and Baranieh described the prospective loans as concessional.
The money is aimed at energy, health, housing, infrastructure and roads, and at preparing conditions for displaced Syrians to return from camps to their cities and villages, including schools, hospitals and basic services. A further package of projects is under study beyond the 406 million dollar first phase, the minister said.
In parallel, the International Finance Corporation is studying five or six projects in Syria in energy, transport, logistics, agriculture and food security, three of them close to signing, with private sector projects estimated at around 1 billion dollars, Baranieh said. Preparatory work has also begun with the World Bank Group’s Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency on political risk guarantees, and Syria and its partners are preparing a multilateral trust fund for recovery and reconstruction, expected within weeks, with no target size yet set.
None of this is signed money except the imminent first package, and even that rests on the minister’s account in a single interview. The structure is nonetheless the story: reconstruction finance is being assembled as concessional sovereign loans, DFI project finance and guarantee cover at the same time, rather than as grant pledges alone.