Syria Banker ’09: The new face of Syria’s economy

When our team of writers and editors started working on Syria Banker ’09 some 6 months ago, the preassure of producing a comprehensive guide on Syria’s new economic landscape  – and the role of private banks in changing the face of Syrian economy – was a great challange for all of us.

“While several banks around the world
have closed down in the wake of the
crisis, more banks are going to open
in Syria before the end of 2009. Since
private banks made their successful
comeback in 2004, after more than 40
years of absence, they have been working
very hard to provide comprehensive
services to the Syrian market. They
succeeded in many aspects, and failed
in others. All in all, their performance
was satisfactory to their shareholders.”

— excerpt from op-ed by Abdulsalam Haykal, CEO and group publisher of Haykal Media, mother company of Forward Magazine/Syria Banker ’09.

We started out with creating a thought map for the guide – we successfully released early August (as evident from a previous post) – by identifying what really needs to be emphasized. We decided for the guide to be hefty and rich we needed to have the following elements:

• Interviews with pivotal policy makers whose vision and work is promising a great change for Syrian economy (Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Dardari, Finance Minister Mohammad Hussein, and Central Bank Governor Adib Mayaleh). These people are the ones with visions for opening up the Syrian market, drawing strategies to attract foreign investment and inacting laws to prevent money laundering.
• Interviews with bankers and testimonies about their journey in the Syrian market… what challanges lie ahead, what’s been achieved and what is planned down the pipeline.
• Inteviews with thinkers and economists who can analyze the current trends growing in Syria in commercial, corporate retail and Islamic banking.

By speaking to all of these people we covered every turf possible related to banking reforms in Syria, we also wrote up an interesting report about the financial landscape of all of the operating banks in Syria, with focus on the ones that are slated to open in the near future.

The people who have so far asked for copies of Syria Banker 09 include economists, entreprenuers and professionals who are interested in keeping up with their country’s fastest growing industry.

To order your copy inside and outside Syria

• call 00963 (0) 991996664,
• email fw@haykal.com

For more details on Syria Banker ’09…
Forward Magazine
PO Box 28, Damascus, Syria
T +963 (11) 2245200
F +963 (11) 2223465

To order online click here

 Text by Syria Banker ’09 editor, Ruba Saqr