Syria reconstruction to cost up to $400bn: Bashar al Assad

Syria President Bashar al-Assad told Russian Deputy Prime Minister that Syria’s reconstruction will cost between $250 billion and $400 billion.

Borisov leads a Russian delegation that is in Damascus for a meeting of the permanent Russian-Syrian commission for trading, economic, scientific and technical cooperation.
Office of Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister Yuri Borisov said that in his meeting with the Syrian head of state, he had discussed industrial, medical, and energy cooperation with Assad in Damascus on Thursday, as a years-long fight against foreign-backed terrorists nears its end.
“The range of questions discussed with the Syrian leader included political affairs, Russia’s participation in Syria’s postwar reconstruction and restoration of life to normal, and cooperation in industry, medicine, energy and other branches of the economy,” Borisov’s office said.
Syria has been able to purge Daesh and other terrorist groups from most of the country with support from Iran and Russia as well as the Lebanese resistance movement Hezbollah.
The war, which began in March 2011, has killed hundreds of thousands of Syrians and dislocated thousands more while destroying most of the country’s infrastructure and industrial capacity.
Borisov said it was critical for Damascus to maximize the effectiveness of its planning by using the existing capacities in order to create the required financial and economic mechanisms.
He noted that Syria didn’t have much time to begin the process as vestiges of what was once a united front against the government could still pose a threat by recruiting people.
“We’ve got to act fast, because any delays in economic recovery will be fraught with serious problems, including an upsurge in the activity of defeated terrorists. Extremists would find it far easier to recruit supporters from the class of impoverished people unable to support their families,” Borisov said.