Two Saudi investors have founded a company in Syria, the first step of its kind after an eight-year diplomatic rupture between Riyadh and the Assad regime.
The Iqtissad website reported on Monday that the Ministry of Trade and Consumer Protection approved the founding of the al-Mubeirik LLC in Damascus, owned by two investors of Saudi nationality.
The site added that, according to the company’s articles of association, the company will work in the trade and supply of construction and cladding materials, as well as food supplies, electrical appliances, electronics and cars.
In addition to importing all the materials allowed to it, the company will also enter tenders and bidding.
The company is owned by Jaafar Abdullah al-Mubeirik, who holds 95 percent of the shares, and Abdullah Jaafar al-Mubeirik, who holds five percent, with the company’s total capital amounting to 5 million Syrian pounds.
The company’s founding comes as a remarkable move, as other Gulf companies, particularly from Saudi Arabia, enter the investment and reconstruction fields in Syria.
The past two years have seen a number of Gulf companies enter into the investment field in Syria, particularly in Damascus and its countryside. Most of the companies were from the UAE and Kuwait.
In 2019, Russian media revealed the existence of meetings between Gulf companies and employees of the Assad regime’s Ministry of Tourism, aimed at refinancing and implementing projects that had been contracted before the outbreak of the Syrian revolution in 2011.
According to the Russian TV channel Russia Today, Saudi and Emirati companies are looking to open other projects in areas under the control of the Assad regime.
The channel reported that the Kuwaiti company Kharafi and the Emirati company Majid al-Futtaim announced they were ready to carry out tourism projects in Damascus.
This article was translated and edited by The Syrian Observer. The Syrian Observer has not verified the content of this story. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author.
