The project is the result of a close cooperation among the United Nations Development Programme, the local community, representatives of the business sector and functionaries of the Ministries of Culture and Local Administration. The regional director of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) Samuel Rizk called it ‘an inclusive early recovery model that could work in a number of locations’.
The Damascus International Fair, the most relevant economic and social event of the Levant has made its return this year (2017) with an added value: it broke the siege that had been laid on Syria since the beginning of the conflict. The fair attracted dozens of countries and companies, thus marking the return of Syria to the international economic arena and announcing the end of the war. It also liberated the country from the stigma of the tragic events that had been unfolding since spring of 2011.
The show witnessed the presence of forty-three countries. Twenty-three of them took part officially through their embassies in Damascus, while the remaining twenty were represented by private companies. The event was a clear indicator of an almost radical change in both the economic and politic climate, and a different way to deal with the Syrian government.
In fact, the declarations which ensued were very different from the harsh words western governments used to direct against the leadership in Damascus in the last five years, when all their statements and policies aimed at delegitimising Syria's top authorities.
Real investment opportunities were offered during the event, where the Czech company ALTA expressed its will to enter the Syrian market, together with the Russian Sovocrim, more than forty-five Iranian companies and a few others from India and China.
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