The Governor of the Central Bank of Syria, Muhammad Safwat Raslan, expected that the volume of foreign capital arriving to establish new banks in Syria would exceed more than one billion dollars during the coming period, as part of a set of objectives for the Central Bank concerned with encouraging investment in the country, protecting the rights of customers, and opening safe transfer corridors through official channels.
On Sunday, the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) quoted Raslan as saying: “With regard to acceptance and licensing standards, there are existing standards and executive instructions for licensing Islamic and traditional banks, and the most important of these standards is the experience of the applicants, the reputation, and the financial solvency of the founders, in addition to the necessity of having a strategic banking partner who owns a share of no less than 10 percent of the established bank.”
Raslan stated that the time frame for granting licenses in general depends on the applicants providing the Central Bank with the required documents and fulfilling the set conditions, stressing that the bank attaches importance to this matter, and is working hard to ensure that the period for issuing the initial license does not exceed 3 to 4 months from the moment of receipt of all requirements.
Raslan confirmed that there are no financial risks; Because the law allowed the foreign investor to keep 60 percent of the paid-up capital in foreign currencies, and as for profits and their transfer, this is also protected; Pointing out that all restrictions on buying and selling or transferring foreign currencies have been abolished, and therefore there are no financial risks to investors in this regard.
Regarding regulatory risks, Raslan explained that the Central Bank of Syria issues its regulatory and supervisory decisions in accordance with international standards, whether in terms of risks or accounting, and therefore investors will not find a difference between what is applied in their countries and what is applied in Syria.
Raslan explained that the Central Bank is working to encourage all international transfer service providers to enter the market through Syrian financial institutions, in order to open safe transfer corridors for Syrians and foreigners, and protect their rights and interests.
Raslan pointed out that the ceiling of permissible daily and monthly transfers is subject to the agreement between the financial institution in Syria and the bank, or the company providing the service abroad, explaining that what matters to the Central Bank of Syria is taking the necessary procedures and setting ceilings by the institutions in proportion to the nature of the service provided.
On the other hand, President Ahmed Al-Sharaa issued Decree No. 176 of 2026, appointing Nibras Muhammad Wahid Khayat as First Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Syria.
The second article of the decree stipulates the cancellation of all work that contravenes the provisions of this decree
Qualcomm Technologies and Tarjamah announced the signing of a memorandum of understanding during the LEAP 2026 conference in Riyadh, to explore opportunities to accelerate the deployment of artificial intelligence solutions in the Arabic language, directed to companies and government agencies.
The partnership aims to help organizations move from artificial intelligence experiments and pilot projects to applications ready for actual use, by combining Tarjama’s expertise in Arabic language technologies and Qualcomm Technologies’ capabilities in improving the performance and dissemination of artificial intelligence technologies.
Organizations face increasing challenges as they move from testing AI technologies to using them at scale; Especially in developing local and sovereign solutions capable of operating in government environments and business sectors.
The Arabic language requires models and applications capable of dealing with linguistic differences, dialects, cultural context, and specialized terminology for each sector, in addition to performance, reliability, and scalability requirements.
The partnership comes at a time when the development of artificial intelligence technologies in the Arabic language is witnessing increasing investments in the region. Tarjamah’s “Arabic.AI” platform recently attracted investment and strategic cooperation from Humane.
The two companies intend to explore opportunities to include and improve selected models of artificial intelligence in the Arabic language on the “Qualcomm Dragonfly” artificial intelligence infrastructure technologies, in addition to evaluating their performance and readiness for deployment.
Potential areas of cooperation also include developing artificial intelligence capabilities in Arabic in applications of generative artificial intelligence, conversational artificial intelligence, reasoning, and agent-based systems.
Tarjamah has nearly two decades of experience in the field of the Arabic language, and provides the “Arabic.AI” platform, models dedicated to the Arabic language, and artificial intelligence applications, targeting the needs of Arabic-speaking markets.
On the other hand, Qualcomm Technologies provides energy-efficient AI acceleration technologies, along with software and expertise to improve the performance of inference processes, scalability, and deployment of AI solutions.
Charles Shipley, managing director of the UAE region and head of cloud artificial intelligence in the Middle East and Africa at Qualcomm Technologies, said that artificial intelligence in the Arabic language represents an important opportunity to expand the use of these technologies in the region.
He added that the cooperation aims to combine Qualcomm Dragonfly technologies with artificial intelligence capabilities in the Arabic language, with the aim of accelerating the deployment of high-performance and scalable solutions in institutions and government agencies.
For her part, Nour Al-Hassan, founder and CEO of Tarjamah, said that developing effective artificial intelligence applications in the Arabic language requires - in addition to the power of models - linguistic expertise, an understanding of the cultural context, and the ability to deploy the technology in actual work environments.
The two companies also intend to evaluate opportunities for technical cooperation, conduct standard tests, and improve models in sectors including institutions, government agencies, communications, financial services, health care, and education.
The cooperation aims to support the development of artificial intelligence applications designed in Arabic first, taking into account cultural and linguistic characteristics.
The Riyadh Economic Forum will hold its twelfth session during the period from October 12 to 14, under the patronage of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, and in the presence and participation of an elite group of officials, decision-makers and economic experts.
The Riyadh Chamber organizes the forum, which was launched about a quarter of a century ago, as part of its role in representing and empowering the private sector and contributing to the formulation and making of economic decisions.
The twelfth session comes after organizing 11 previous sessions, during which the forum issued 57 scientific studies that resulted in 384 recommendations and initiatives, which - according to the Riyadh Chamber - contributed to making development and economic decisions in the Kingdom.
The forum's progress witnessed the organization of 157 seminars and workshops, the issuance of 20 bulletins, in addition to 122 discussion panels, which formed platforms for exchanging opinions, aligning the aspirations of the private sector with the strategic directions of the state, and discussing development and economic issues.
The forum aims to strengthen the partnership between the government and private sectors, by organizing meetings that bring together the business sector with policy makers and leaders of influential institutions in the Kingdom, in addition to working to transform recommendations and scientific studies into initiatives that support the efficiency of the national economy and enhance its competitiveness at the regional and international levels.
