VOL. XLIII

No. 50

11-December-2000

SYRIA

Syrian Governments Decision To Allow Private Sector Banks Underpins Reform...

For the first time since private banks were nationalized in 1963, Syrias ruling Bath party has approved the establishment of private sector banks outside of the countrys free zones. On 2 December the party approved a draft law which also empowers the government to establish a stock market, float the Syrian pound and issue a bank secrecy law. The decision, reached at a meeting...