Orient Net, Dec. 25, 2017— China’s companies see huge potential as Western powers, allies reluctant to help Assad regime.
Qin Yong, vice-president of the China-Arab Exchange Association, said he sees burgeoning interest among Chinese companies.
“We get phone queries every day,” he said. “They see huge business potential there because the entire country needs to be rebuilt.”
The reconstruction of Syria will cost hundreds of billions of dollars, and China wants its share of the pie. In July, Beijing announced a US$2 billion-dollar plan to build an industrial park in Syria for 150 Chinese companies, although few details about the project were revealed. Then, in August, Chinese companies participated in the 59th Damascus International Fair. That was preceded by a Syria Day Expo organized by the Syrian embassy in Beijing, with hundreds of Chinese specialists in attendance.
Qin said the companies he has been escorting to Damascus, Homs and Tartus, including China National Heavy Duty Truck Company, are eyeing projects to build roads, bridges, airports and hospitals and restore electricity and communications.
That may just be the beginning because Syria fits into Chinese strategy. The country was a key link on the ancient Silk Road, and President Xi Jinping’s most ambitious plan involves building a new one – the multibillion-dollar Belt and Road Initiative, which aims to weave a Chinese web of trade and transportation links across Eurasia and Africa.
For all those grand visions, there is an immediate obstacle for Chinese business in Syria, according to Mr Qin: Settlements in dollars and euros are banned because of US and EU sanctions aimed at cutting Mr Assad’s regime off from the world economy.
