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Opportunities in Jordan, Syria and Lebanon

We report on the recent seminar held at the Arab-British Chamber of Commerce on 11 February to highlight the attractions of three emerging markets in the Levant.

The half-day seminar was organised by the A-BCC in cooperation with UK Trade & Investment and the Embassies of the three countries concerned.
A full house at the premises of the chamber heard Dr Afnan Al-Shuaiby, A-BCC Secretary General & CEO, open the proceedings which were chaired by Sir Alan Munro, a Director of the A-BCC.
The high calibre panel included the respective ambassadors for Syria and Jordan, H E Dr Sami Khiyami and H E Dr Alia Bouran along with the Charge d’Affaires for Lebanon, Mr Hassan Abbas. The diplomats were joined by the heads of the UKTI in the British Embassies of Amman, Damascus and Beirut: Sarah Hildersley, Ann Petrie and Marie-Louise Archer. Mr George Asseily, Chairman of the Centre for Lebanese Studies and a Director of the A-BCC, completed the line up.
In her opening remarks, Dr Afnan stressed the substantial benefits that are available to UK investors, suppliers and service providers in these markets now that all three countries have opened up in varying degrees and are seeking to attract foreign partners and investors.
“Whilst no-one would want to deny that these markets can be challenging, the remaining obstacles to doing business in Jordan, Lebanon and Syria are gradually being removed and each of the three countries has its own distinct attractions and strengths that should not be overlooked,” she said.
The seminar was divided into three sessions covering each country in turn. The Jordanian Ambassador H E Dr Alia Bouran began and was followed by Sarah Hildersley, Head of UKTI, at the British Embassy in Amman. Dr Bouran thanked the A-BCC and Dr Afnan for giving her an opportunity to highlight the potential of Jordan for investment.
In a broad overview of the Jordanian market, the Ambassador pointed to the progress that the country had made over the past seven years since it embarked on its course of reforms in terms of improving life expectancy and educational levels of its people.
She flagged up the opportunities available to UK firms as Jordan continues to upgrade its infrastructure as well as benefits offered to companies by the country’s free zones and industrial zones.
The privatisation policy was moving ahead and investors should look out for future privatisation of railways, the Aqaba port relocation project and the water sector.
The Ambassador said that she wanted to see more UK investment in her country and urged UK companies to recognise the potential that exists for doing business in Jordan.
Her optimistic words were echoed by Sarah Hildersley who also expressed hope that the well attended meeting would mark the start of some good new business partnerships.
Ms Hildersley stressed that Jordan’s economy was stable and its banking system remained strong despite the current crisis because it had adopted a cautious approach to investment. The country was a low cost market for manufacturers and specific niche areas offered considerable opportunities such as consultancy services, healthcare, “green buildings”, education & training and IT, she said.
Jordan had launched a programme to develop “e-learning” and was opening new “discovery schools” that followed international educational standards. The possibility of education exchange programmes offered real potential as did the development of specialist sector skills training programmes.
She also felt that Amman could be an important centre for the provision of educational services to Iraqis since Jordan enjoys close commercial links with its neighbour. Foreign companies wishing to work with Iraq can take advantage of this.
In addition, Jordan was also fast becoming a centre for “medical tourism” attracting an increased number of patients from overseas and this development offered potential for UK specialist companies, Ms Hildersley said.
She concluded by remarking that Jordan was a growing market and welcomed the fact that new UK firms were setting up in increasing numbers.
The audience of UK companies and A-BCC members took a keen interest in the presentations and many well focused questioned followed. In particular, the Ambassador addressed the issue of the protection of Jordan’s historic sites and development of heritage tourism. She mentioned that the country had 27 thousand registered historic sites and had adopted a strategy for sustainable tourism where the role of the private sector was encouraged.
Syria
Turning to Syria, Sir Alan Munro said that the country had massive and exciting prospects now that it was opening up. Ambassador HE Dr Sami Khiyami echoed this stating that Syria was “virgin territory for investors”.
It not only had its own large consumer market of 20 million people, but was also close to the markets of Turkey, Iraq and Lebanon. Furthermore, trade between all these countries was rising, he said. 
Over the past five years, Syria has been moving rapidly towards a market economy. It had always had a strong private sector, but it was now playing a more important role in the economy. For example, 60% of the country’s exports were from the private sector. 
Syria was attractive to investors because of its low labour costs and its people generally possessed good technical skills from its long history of industry and engineering.  In fact, as H E Dr Khiyami pointed out, Syria was the first country in the region to become industrialised.
It was because Syria had found itself outside the mainstream for some time that it was now in need of developing new technologies and modernisation. It needed to upgrade and was looking for partners to assist in this endeavour.
The Ambassador stressed that Syria remains crucial to the continuing reconstruction of Iraq and as that country looks set to develop quite rapidly Syria would become more important too.
Specific sectors where there are opportunities include the food industry; Syria had an abundant supply of olive oil of an extremely high quality, “the best in the world”, the Ambassador said, but it was not marketed or packaged sufficiently well to be exported widely.
Phosphates, pharmaceuticals and cement were other key products that Syria possessed.
Rapid changes were taking place in the country’s banking sector with many private banks and insurance companies now setting up in the market. The Damascus stock exchange was scheduled to open soon.
The Ambassador also pointed to new opportunities for investors in tourism, healthcare, education, transport, desalinated water, the retail sector and IT. “Events were changing fast as Syria moves into the free market,” Dr Khiyami said.
Ann Petrie, Head of UKTI, British Embassy in Damascus, admitted that trade between the UK and Syria was at present small, although both imports and exports had increased in 2008.
The improved political climate was a key factor influencing an increase in trade, she said. The extent of the reforms to the legal system that Syria had adopted had been recognised by observers like the World Bank. Its financial sector was also assuming a more important role.
As a result of recent commercial legislation, it was now far simpler to register a company in Syria and the tax system was more transparent. In addition, restrictions on cross-border trade were lifted in 2008, Ms Petrie said.  
In conclusion, she agreed with the Ambassador on the specific sectors where significant opportunities existed and highlighted the fact that there were encouraging sign of new British involvement, for example, in banking services. She also mentioned that a British hotel chain was seriously looking at coming into Syria.
Lebanon
Finally, the session devoted to Lebanon began with a presentation by Mr Hassan Abbas, First Secretary at the Lebanese Embassy in London, who addressed the important issues of stability and security in the country, stressing that once again Lebanon was now a “calm spot”. It had achieved political stability under a new president and unity government and all sides in the political process were fully committed to the course of liberal economic reform that the country had embarked on a few years ago.
Traditionally, Lebanon has been seen as a base for companies wishing to trade with the wider Middle East. Its financial and banking sector remained strong and had not unduly suffered during the current global crisis.
The country’s population were highly skilled in everything from finance to engineering and IT, Mr Abbas said.
Tourism remained a major industry for the country, whose open, liberal society coupled with moderate climate had long made it a magnet for visitors from both the Middle East and Europe.
Marie-Louise Archer, Head of UKTI, British Embassy in Beirut, focused on what Lebanon had achieved since 2006 in terms of rebuilding its economy and reconstruction, such as the impressive new building taking place in Downtown Beirut.
She said that the country was a big market for manufactured goods; it has a low manufacturing base of its own and imported 90% of its needs. In this respect, it was an attractive market for medical goods and pharmaceutical products.
Urging UK suppliers to explore the market, Ms Archer said that UK goods were highly regarded in the country.
Opportunities exist in a range of sectors but one development to look out for is the planned privatisation of telecoms which was set to go ahead after the coming election.
Adding some personal observations based on his long experience of the Lebanese market, Mr George Asseily OBE stressed the ease of doing business there and the importance of Lebanon as a location for the re-exporting of goods to the region, especially to Iraq.
In addition, Lebanese universities had high standards and IT in particular was very well developed. For a small country, Lebanon had an extremely large banking sector of some 60 banks and $80 billion in deposits; its central bank had foreign reserves of $20bn, Mr Asseily said. The country’s banks were expanding into Syria, Jordan, Sudan, Northern Iraq and further afield.
Each session concluded with a lively question and answer session which indicated a high level of interest in the markets from UK investors and exporters who were represented at the meeting.
The event finished with a short but entertaining outline of the role of BMI in the region. Finally, BMI was thanked for sponsoring the event.