Syrian President Ahmed Al-Sharaa said that his country has moved from being a security and political “problem” troubling the region to an economic and strategic opportunity that can contribute to the security of supply chains, energy and trade between East and West, revealing expectations that the size of the Syrian economy will rise to about 50 billion dollars during the current year, compared to about 20 billion dollars in 2024.
Al-Sharaa acknowledged in his speech during the Arab Media Summit in Dubai on Tuesday that the ongoing economic transformations require “shocking” decisions, in what appeared to be an implicit reference to decisions such as raising fuel prices that sparked protests in various regions of Syria during the past days.
He said that his government does not want to adopt a “policy of complaints or promises,” but rather focus on action, noting that the criterion for success will be the results that the Syrians experience.
He explained that Syria is moving from an economic model characterized by a high degree of bureaucracy, state dominance, and corruption to an economy that gives the private sector and investment a large space. But he acknowledged that the sudden transition may cause “a kind of shock,” explaining that the government studied a number of experiences of countries that have gone through similar stages of transformation, and that managing the stage requires a degree of gradualism, in addition to making decisions that may be “shocking” at times.
He said that the size of the Syrian economy at its best before the war amounted to about 60 billion dollars in 2010, before it declined to about 20 billion dollars in 2024. He added that the economy grew to about 32 billion dollars during 2025, expecting it to reach about 50 billion dollars in 2026, and to recover in 2027 approximately to the levels recorded in 2010.
He continued that the ambitions go beyond returning to pre-war levels, saying that the economic programs target the possibility of the size of the economy reaching about $200 billion during the next five to ten years, provided that stability exists and the region and the world are not exposed to widespread turmoil.
He believed that regional risks still constitute one of the biggest challenges facing Syria. He added that his country faces “a heavy legacy resulting from 60 years of destruction and 14 years of continuous war,” and that Syria’s exit from the circle of conflict “is not alone enough to ensure the sustainability of stability unless a greater degree of regional and strategic security is achieved.” He pointed out that “what scares us most is that the wars will expand more and more.”
He stressed that Damascus is working with Arab countries to search for ways to reduce the effects of wars and mitigate expected risks in the future, considering that Syria can play a pivotal role in enhancing regional stability.
Al-Sharaa painted a picture of the stage that Syria is going through after decades of previous rule and 14 years of war, considering that the country is undergoing a broad transition process that includes rebuilding state institutions, economic transformation, attracting investments, and rehabilitating infrastructure, in parallel with working to establish internal stability and return Syria to its Arab and regional surroundings. He said, “The liberation of Damascus represented the beginning of restoring hope, not only for Syrians but for the entire region,” after nearly 60 years that he described as being characterized by “injustice and corruption,” adding that what was achieved gave the Syrians a great deal of confidence in their ability to rebuild their state.
He pointed out that Syria had suffered for decades from the intersection of “poor planning and administrative corruption,” which, as he put it, led to a doubling of the extent of the damage, before the years of war added more complex challenges related to infrastructure, energy, services, the economy, and internal divisions.
The Syrian President explained that Syria “has moved from being a source of Captagon and human trafficking, and a foothold for spreading conflicts and problems in the region,” to a country that “seeks to be a spot of stability,” noting increased talk about its potential role in regional trade and the security of supply and energy chains, in addition to its location on the roads linking East and West.
Speaking about foreign policy, Al-Sharaa stressed that Damascus seeks to build its relations on “credibility and trust,” while preserving the independence of Syrian decision-making. He said, “Syria does not need to be affiliated with any party,” adding that it possesses the civilization, experience, and human resources that allow it to be independent in its decisions, and at the same time “to seek the strength of its brothers and those around it.”
He stressed that his country cannot do without its Arab and Islamic surroundings, and that it relies heavily on Arab countries for political support and to benefit from their expertise and development experiences. He added that Syria does not want “to start from the zero from which these countries started, but rather to start from the hundred where they ended.”
He focused on the issue of international sanctions, considering that Syria had been one of the countries most subject to sanctions in the world for decades, and that their effects were not limited to state institutions, but were directly reflected in Syrian society and the economy. He said that entire generations inside Syria did not deal normally with financial trading mechanisms, bank guarantees, and the global financial system as a result of the long isolation.
In this context, he praised the efforts made by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, along with US President Donald Trump, regarding sanctions, considering that the decision to lift them represented a historic transformation for his country. He said: “I believe that Syria was reborn after the lifting of sanctions,” adding that the basic restrictions had been broken, and that the responsibility now lay in “policies and procedures and making the right and sound choices” to move the economy and the state forward.
