Syrian foreign investors welcome after US sanctions move

DAMASCUS, May 15 (Arab News): Syrian Finance Minister Yisr Barnieh made a call to global investors on Wednesday to come do business with Syria after US President Donald Trump's surprise announcement that he would lift all of Washington's sanctions on the country.

"Syria today is a land of opportunities, with immense potential across every sector - from agriculture to oil, tourism, infrastructure, and transportation," Barnieh said in an interview with Reuters at the Finance Ministry in Damascus. "We envision a central role for the private sector in the new Syrian economy. The finance ministry's role is not to spend indiscriminately or act as a regulatory enforcer over businesses, but rather to enable and support growth." A wall outside his office still bore the discolored outline of one of the many posters of former strongman Bashar Assad that used to hang in Syria's public buildings before his ousting by Islamist rebels Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham last year.