Syria’s Finance Minister, Mohammed Barnieh, has said that Qatar will help pay public sector employees in Syria, according to a report by AFP and Reuters.
This is important for the new Syrian government. Syria faces myriad challenges, including rebuilding the country and integrating many regions under the new transitional government.
In order to do this, the country needs investment and money to pay basic salaries.
The Doha financing is made possible by an exemption from sanctions by the US, according to reports.
This has significant implications because if Western allies and partners don’t jump in to invest in Syria, then countries that oppose the West may exploit the situation. Syria’s new president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, has been doing outreach in the West.
He went to France this week on his first trip to Europe. He has also been to Turkey and Saudi Arabia and has worked to balance ties with Qatar and the UAE - two countries in the Gulf that do not always agree on policy in the region.
The initial Doha investment is not very large on a global scale; however, since Syrian salaries are quite low, it may have a big impact. Reports say it will amount to around $29 million a month for the first three months.
Barnieh said this will be “followed by other measures aimed at reducing the sanctions…We continue with reforms to strengthen trust in our financial system.”
How many people could be paid in Syria with $29m.? Let’s say the salaries are $100 a month for each person being paid. That could amount to 290,000 people being paid if the salaries went directly to the people.
If the employees’ salaries are more than $100, this means fewer people would be paid. How many public sector employees might be under the Syrian government currently? Syria’s population is around 20-25 million people.
The government likely controls around 16-20 million people because it doesn’t currently rule over eastern Syria or the Turkish-run part of northern Syria. In the Kurdistan region of Iraq, there are 150,000 public sector employees for 7 million people.
Syria might have up to 450,000 public sector employees. Therefore, the estimate above could cover around 300,000 people, which makes sense when applied to the area run by the Syrian government.
Doha financing is good news for Syrian debt
The Doha financing is good news. Saudi Arabia and Doha also helped pay off Syrian debt to the World Bank recently. Other countries are looking to invest, including China. Many things are moving forward for Syria.
Some critics have said that Qatar uses initiatives like this to buy influence in other countries. For instance, Doha has been critiqued for funding universities in the US, as well as Gaza prior to October 7.
Qatar said the money was not going to Hamas but rather to Gaza’s citizens. According to reports, this funding amounted in some cases to up to $30m, per month.
A report at Calcalist said that “of this amount, $10m. will be earmarked for the purchase of fuel from Israel for the operation of the only power plant in the Gaza Strip, $10m. for financing salaries of government employees, and $10m. for a monthly aid of $100 to 100,000 needy families.”
It therefore appears that Gaza, which has a population of two million people, was receiving a third of the amount of funding as Syria, which has 20 million people. Gazans apparently make about twice as much as Syrians or more.
Nevertheless, this implies that the public sector was bloated in Gaza. One can draw the conclusions they might like, such as Hamas perhaps bloating the sector with its own members.
What is the important lesson here? Critics of Doha’s funding should look to Syria as a model. Doha is present at the creation of the new Syrian government.
It is taking responsibility for funding. Other countries are not stepping up as fast. If they don’t want Doha to have an oversized influence, they should put their money up.
There’s a saying about how “money talks.” The Trump administration, which knows the art of the deal, might look to Syria as an example of a place to get in at the ground level of seed money financing.