Abstract
This chapter examines investment performance in Syria prior to the 2011 uprising, as well as the policy options debated during the devastating post-uprising war period. The chapter also provides a synopsis of the neoliberal reforms that were enacted between 2000 and 2010, under the rule of the present government (2015). These reforms consisted of lifting price controls and reducing tariffs, amending investment laws, unifying official and market exchange rates, removing subsidies, and opening up trade and capital accounts. The regime transformed the economy from state-controlled to a market-oriented economic structure; all the while, state institutions remained firmly in the hands of the ruling merchant-military class. Driven by the objective laws of growth under capitalism, the ruling class was keen to change from a state bourgeois class (which controls the means of production through its control of the state) into a private capitalist class that individually owns the means of production. Naturally, the state bourgeoisie promoted the sort of private sector-led activity that agreed with their private interests. Speculation in the real estate market, monopolising the telecommunication sector and going around the law to seize public assets for private use were landmark characteristics of the makeover.
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© 2016 Linda Matar and Ali Kadri
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Matar, L., Kadri, A. (2016). Investment and Neoliberalism in Syria. In: Kadri, A. (eds) Development Challenges and Solutions after the Arab Spring. Rethinking International Development Series. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137541406_11
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137541406_11
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