DAMASCUS —Syria's new government has told business leaders it will adopt a free-market model and integrate the country into the global economy in a major shift from decades of corrupt state control, the head of the biggest Syrian business lobby said on Tuesday.
Independently trading in foreign currencies could previously land someone in jail, but has become common practice in everyday transactions since Assad's ouster.MARKET LIBERALISATION?Hamwi said he had been informed by Adelaziz that the stifling customs system would be done away with, fulfilling a major demand of traders and industrialists."Everyone who registers at the chambers will be able to import the goods they want into the market, within a specific system," he said.