Meeting in Damascus
Syria's finance minister, Mohammad Yosr Barnieh, received a visiting World Bank Group mission in Damascus on 29 October 2026, and the two sides opened talks on developing the legal and institutional framework that would govern investment in the country's infrastructure.
The discussion centered on how to support Syria's reconstruction through partnerships between the public and private sectors, a model the ministry is promoting to draw private and outside capital into large rebuilding projects.
Partnership Unit Takes Shape
The participants reviewed the progress made toward establishing a dedicated public-private partnership unit inside the finance ministry, a body meant to structure, assess and manage such projects as they advance.
They also discussed preparing a list of priority investment projects, including several projects already proposed under the state investment budget, so that the most urgent work can move first.
Financing the Rebuild
The two sides examined the large financing needs that reconstruction will require and the ministry's role in evaluating projects and weighing the fiscal risks each one carries for the state.
The talks extended to blended finance instruments, which pair public money with private investment, and to the legal and institutional requirements that must be in place before such instruments can be used.
Ministries Join Workshop
A dedicated workshop on public-private partnerships followed the meeting, bringing together the ministries of energy, emergency and disaster management, and public works and housing, alongside the finance ministry.
Participants worked to set a framework for ranking infrastructure investment priorities and to explore creating a dedicated facility that would prepare projects and bring them to the point of investment.
From Bangkok to Damascus
The Damascus talks built on an earlier meeting held abroad. On 13 October 2026, the finance minister and the governor of the central bank, Safwat Raslan, met the president of the World Bank Group, Ajay Banga, in Bangkok.
That encounter took place on the sidelines of the 2026 annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, and it addressed financing for Syria as well as the recovery projects the lender supports in the country.