Industrial development is the main outlet for creating production bases and maximizing the export possibilities of the national economy. It is therefore the most important priority for the establishment of a national economy capable of competing in the light of international change and the creation of a number of economic blocs among industrialized countries. The target growth rate should not be less than 9% in the future.

Economic development is achieved thanks to the presence of the industrial sector, which is able to export its products to global markets, competing with products from developed and developing countries. This will increase production and increase, quality. The policies envisaged must attract Syrian and non-Syrian capital and encourage the creation of large industries that will help create and create other industries that foster job creation and create an industrial start in society by increasing industrial investment in various sectors. And make use of the available expertise, thanks to which Syria is one of the best places to attract investments due to geographical location and political stability.

General features of the industry development strategy:

The strategy of industrial development is aimed at extending and developing industrial activities, deepening its role in general developmental tasks, developing the industrial structure and deepening and extending its network. This means that industrial policy has set goals to achieve, the most important of which are:

Increase the growth rate of industrial production and increase its share in the structure of global production.
Focus on the production of local raw materials and their derivatives, increasing the added value and limiting the export of raw materials.
To produce the goods needed to meet the basic needs of the population and reduce the dependence on imports to safe.
Encourage export sectors to guarantee inflow of currencies.
Creating high-tech, high value-added industries.
Achieve the degree of horizontal and vertical integration between industries on the one hand and between them and other sectors of the economy on the other.
Development of methods and possibilities for industrial training and rehabilitation.
Creating an appropriate, stable investment climate to encourage the participation of foreign and Arab capital in the financing of industrial projects.
Import of technology and advanced equipment, location and optimization of development. Local technological possibilities.
Increasing the competitiveness of Syrian enterprises.
Improving labor productivity in the industrial sector.
The development of the private sector, especially small and medium-sized enterprises.
Repair of industrial management.
Mitigation of environmental pollution by industry.
Achieving coordination and industrial integration between Syria and the rest of the Arab countries.

These objectives reflect the nature of the industrial development stage. The industrial development strategy requires the establishment and development of infrastructure, in particular transport infrastructure (roads, bridges, ports, airports, transport, shipping companies, power plants, industrial cities and free zones) and others.

Industrial development in Syria must necessarily be based on economic and social orientation that represents the vision of public authority with regard to existing interests. This vision is the cornerstone of the general framework of industrialization that answers the first question. What we produce … And who we produce … And how to produce? This means identifying general upward trends in basic industries and their links to other sectors. In addition to identifying general trends regarding the size and nature of the social benefits associated with industrialization. Distribution of industrial return between domestic development and export … and distribution of industrial production between labor and capital.

It is necessary to test compliance of industrial policy with development tendencies and objectives, be it at the theoretical level, to what extent they correspond to the development of developmental thought or at the practical level, the extent of their response to the requirements of official development documents and the effectiveness of their implementation and their compliance with the actual needs economy and society.

The concept of industry and production:

The word industry is launched in one of the branches of the national economy, which covers all activities aiming at extracting and managing natural resources from the underground (extractive industry) and using them to use the means of production from man to commodity, which is used to satisfy people’s needs (manufacturing industry).

Industrialization represents the process of creation and development of large industries and historically associated with the entry into the field of production machinery and the decline of manual labor and the decline in the importance of craft and the most important characteristics of the production process and its results:

Wide application of technology.
The emergence of large industrial conglomerates.
Development and expansion of cities and increase in population density.

The importance of the industrial sector:

The essence of economic development in all countries of the world is, on the one hand, the diversification of the economic structure, and on the other, the constant modernization of the scientific and technological level of economic activity. Therefore, the importance of the industrial sector in any country results from the following indicators:

Produce goods and services to contribute to the needs of people.
Deepening links between sectors of the national economy.
Contributing to the expansion and modernization of the technological base.
Create new job opportunities.

Typical development phases of the Syrian industry:

1) The first industrial phase (1946 -1958):

The first industrial phase began in Syria from the first independence days in 1946 and lasts until the merger of Egypt and Syria in 1958. The role of the state in this phase was limited in terms of investment and planning. At this stage, the state did not have a specific strategy for development. The state undertook a preventive effort, and therefore market forces played a key role in guiding and controlling development during this period.

In this phase, food industry industries have developed, which depend on agricultural products, vegetables and fruits, in particular their preservation and packaging, and other agricultural industries, such as cotton, spinning, weaving and the tobacco industry and its industry. Cement factories, construction materials, glass and textile industry also developed. These activities are based on local raw materials and the workers’ Syrian border.

2) Second industrial phase (1958-1961):

The general orientations of economic policy in unity (United Arab Emirates) were adapted to the program and special system established by the late President Gamal Abdel Nasser and implemented in Egypt and Syria. In 1961, Nationalization of 27 industrial plants of various sizes, the total capital invested amounted to 170 million Syrian pounds. The nationalization of banks and the implementation of the Law on Agricultural Reform have also been nationalized. The nationalization decisions included granting employees new rights in the management of economic enterprises and social insurance. There has been no major change in the structure of the Syrian industry, where the textile and food industries remained the most important of the Syrian industries.

3) The third industrial stage (1961-1963):

In this phase, after the return of unity between Egypt and Syria, and the occurrence of secession, the Syrian bourgeoisie returned to power. It was considered a withdrawal from socialist decisions. The nationalization decisions issued at the time of unification were canceled and some industrialized factories were returned to their owners. Industrial output growth The contribution of the industrial sector to GDP in 1963 was 17%.

4) The fourth industrial scene (1963-1970):

After the revolution of March 8, 1963 and the seizure of power by the Arab socialist party Baas in Syria, a new stage in the history of Syria began, especially with regard to action. Syria witnessed a new wave of nationalization, 230 million health workers in 25,609 employees and an increase in economic activity of the state increases in accordance with the following principles:

Increasing the importance and size of the industrial public sector.
Follow the rules for replacing imports.
Securing new jobs by the public sector.

The second five-year plan was implemented at this stage, and the importance of the mining industry, especially in the field of oil, has increased.

5) The fifth industrial phase (1970-1990);

This stage was the stage of stability with the 16/11/1970 corrective motion. Four development plans in Syria were developed and implemented. During this phase, the Syrian industry witnessed fundamental and profound changes,

The state is trying to rationalize its role and rationalize it, calling on the private sector to increase its contribution to development efforts.
Promote a policy of replacement and expansion of imports.
Extensive expansion in the electrical industry, in particular in power plants, transmission networks and energy distribution.
Development of the mining industry.

These industrial changes have had a significant impact on the growing role of industry in the development process and its growing importance at the economic and social level.

Syrian industry in the shadow of economic pluralism:

Economic pluralism can be seen as a development mechanism that allows many forms of ownership of the means of production in business (public sector, private sector, common sector). Economic pluralism has long been a situation in Syria, with the role of domestic sectors available from public, private, from one stage to the next and from one to the other, in accordance with the manifestations and interests of elites and active classes in society and in accordance with the dominant power relations between them and they may be accompanied by different levels and variety of forms of state execution of its role in economic life.

The developmental needs of pluralism in the national economy in Syria are as follows:

Mobilize domestic economic capabilities for development.
Improve the efficiency of resource use.
Strengthening the national economy’s ability to deal with the global market.
Encouraging Arab and foreign capital to invest in Syria.
Adapting to global economic variables.
Taking into account domestic economic and social needs.

The issuance of the Investment Promotion Law No. 10 of 1991, which encourages the investment of the funds of Syrian Arab citizens residing abroad and nationals of Arab and foreign countries in investment projects within the framework of economic and social development plans in Syria.

The most important results of the policy of economic pluralism in Syria:

Increase the contribution of the private sector to business.
Reduce the distance between supply and demand.
Modifying the role of the state in development from trust to partnership.
Modification of the balance of forces in society.

Syrian industrial development:

The industrial activities in Syria are divided according to the international classification established by the United Nations, in accordance with the following sections:

Mining industry: includes industrial activities related to oil extraction and production.
Water and electricity industry: covers all industrial activities related to the storage and distribution of water, as well as activities related to the generation, transmission and distribution of electricity.
Manufacturing industry: includes all types of industrial activities not covered by the mining industry and the water and electricity industry.

The manufacturing industry is divided into nine groups according to their production activities:

Food, beverage and tobacco industry.
Textile, leather and leather industries.
Wood industry, furniture and furniture.
Paper industry and its products as well as printing.
Chemical industry and its products as well as refining of crude oil.
Production of non-metallic products.
The basic metal industry.
Production of metal products.
Other various industries.

Mining industry in Syria:

The most important production activity in the mining industry up to the end of the 1960s in Syria was limited to the supply of sand, gravel and some types of building stone to meet the needs of the construction sector and the amount of asphalt. Oil and gas have become one of the most important products of the Syrian mining industry. The Syrian economy is constantly growing.

Oil exploration in Syria began at the end of the last century, when the Ottoman government granted a German company a license to search for oil in the Iskandarun and Jordanian border region (south of Syria), but the results of exploration and exploration of oil disappointed. The most important stage in the history of Syrian exploration of oil began with the signing of the Agreement on technical cooperation with the Soviet Union. The task of searching for oil was entrusted to General Petroleum Corporation, which began operations in 1958. The year 1968 can be considered the beginning of the economic production of oil in Syria. In 2008, up to 1.03 million cubic meters and in 1992, it reached approximately 27.025 million tonnes.

The oil and gas industry needs sophisticated scientific and technological knowledge and high capital intensity, prompting the government to consider accelerating exploration and exploration, and sometimes avoiding high financial risks associated with exploration and prospecting for oil in areas of hope. The most appropriate option that the government found in this area was cooperation with foreign companies through so-called service contracts, which were recognized as the discovery of large oil deposits in Syria, and obtaining large quantities meant that Syria turned from an importing country on the exporter. .

As for phosphates, its production increased until 1990 and started to decline for many reasons, including the decline in exports due to the intensification of competition in the global market and high production costs.

Some of the problems faced by the Syrian mining industry are: depletion, risk, prices, competitiveness and the environment, with the emphasis that the mining industry is linked to the changing conditions of the global market, because they depend on exports.

Electrotechnical industry:

Syria was widely known for its electricity in 1905, when a Belgian energy company lit part of Damascus. The Syrian cities of Aleppo were lighted in 1920, while Homs and Hama were created in the early 1930s. Syrian Electricity Corporation was founded in 1965 after the nationalization of enterprises. Foreign energy companies. Today, two government institutions produce and distribute electricity in Syria:

First: General Establishment for the production and transmission of electricity.

Second: The general organization of distribution and investment of electricity.

In Syria, there has been a significant increase in electricity consumption per capita. The average per capita consumption per capita in 1975-1994 was 9.4%, which is one of the highest rates in the world.

The volume of government investments in the energy sector in Syria increased, and sources of energy production, in particular steam power plants, which account for approximately 47% of the sources of energy production in Syria, increased. The transmission and distribution networks have evolved considerably since the mid-1970s and also in the regions of the country, and have made a great leap in lighting the Syrian village in 1965-1975 and igniting all Syrian villages and declaring the future demand for electricity and some problems to the researcher facing the energy sector in Syria, in particular the exploitation and loss factor.

Production:

Syria has long been an important center of Arab Mashreq for the craft and the home industry, in particular for the production of swords and the textile industry (cotton and silk fabrics) and the development of Syrian industry during the Turkish occupation. However, the industry played a limited role in the Syrian economy and the proportion of industry and commerce workers in Syria in the run-up to World War I 10-15% of the population, and the most important industries at this stage were the textile industry. Olive industry, mills and the production of cookies and biscuits.

The Ministry of Industry was established in 1958. It was entrusted with supervising, overseeing and supervising all policies related to issues of industrialization at the national level. However, this did not eliminate the existence of some state-owned production facilities that are administratively linked to ministries other than the Ministry of Industry. For cotton marketing and marketing for the Ministry of Economy. Two companies dealing in oil refining in Homs and Banias follow the Ministry of Oil and Mineral Resources and act in accordance with the General Office for Trade in Grain and Production of the Ministry of Supply and Internal Trade.

The state attached great importance to the development of the production sector in Syria in terms of size or in the introduction of new industries to Syria, which resulted in the following positive results:

Expand and diversify the production base.
Developing and expanding the use of technology in the Syrian industry.
Increasing the contribution of domestic industry to domestic demand for processed goods.
Create new orders.

These positive results were accompanied by some negative effects, such as increased dependence on the external market in order to secure production requirements in the manufacturing industry and the relative neglect of the public sector in the country, namely agriculture.

Syrian industry and future needs:

In today’s global conditions, when the world is moving towards openness under the banner of globalization, which they lead and which support powerful economic and political forces in today’s world, Syrian industry must try to review and develop the industrial public sector, the private sector. And the nationwide industry as a whole.

1. Public sector: The public sector in Syria plays a key role in the development process dictated by the economic, social and most important aspects of the public sector.

The strategic projects sector.
Global sector of capital costs of projects.
Project sector with long-term profit, i.e. Projects awaiting a return after a long period.

The public sector is very important in controlling the social movement and its balance through its role in reducing the number of economic gaps, in particular in the raw material gap, employment gap and the gap of aspirations, in order to solve the most important problems they face. Through the public sector. It is necessary to establish management principles and develop a planning method. A new role of control focusing on individual and collective motivation.

2. Private sector: There are many problems and difficulties encountered by the private industrial sector and have a negative impact on the level of economic performance and limit its ability to develop and develop the most important:

Geographical concentration in the Governors of Damascus, Damascus and Aleppo.
Lack of interest in quality.
Multiple governmental authorities overseeing and bureaucratic.
Reliance on importing production outlays.
Problems with financing.

The issue of protection must be re-examined as one of the traditional measures used by some countries to strengthen their economy, improve their competitiveness and the need to deal with new changes in the world economy, in particular the issue of Total Quality (ISO 9000), highlighting the importance of industrial information systems, which are the main factors for the future development of the Syrian industry.

The strategic direction in this respect requires the implementation of a number of policies, in particular:

Continue to provide the necessary elements to improve the investment climate to adapt to the development of local and surrounding conditions, to continue to encourage capital (Syria, Arab and foreign countries) to invest in industrial activities due to its importance in attracting advanced technology, especially to new areas and strengthening of infrastructure in these areas. The areas and industrial societies in these areas are urbanized in governorates and new extensions and lead to the lifestyles of existing integrated urban communities outside of existing blocks of flats, and related activities have promoted a large number of jobs in the areas of trade, transport and services.

Encouraging small and medium-sized enterprises and supporting their role as end-product or nutritious products, as well as supplementing large industries and extending the proliferation of these industries in governors.
Creating research units in production plants in cooperation with scientific institutions or specialized centers in order to develop the production process through the use of modern science and technology.
Expanding the creation of export-oriented industries, paying attention to studying the needs of foreign markets in the area of new goods, providing marketing, promotional and financial organizations for export services and paying attention to various modes of transport of exported products to ensure their constant presence in the markets, packaging and packaging services (tax recovery system, direct recovery and other incentives).
Attracting international companies to direct investments to export and take advantage of the advantages of some Syrian products in opening up new markets in Syrian industry.
5 – Preventing Syrian industry from illegal competition through the support provided by some countries to their products or in line with the policy of dumping markets.
Expanding the scope of creating integrated industrial complexes of various types and providing technical, administrative and marketing support to small and medium-sized enterprises.
Improving production efficiency and improving the quality of industrial goods by supporting institutional and regulatory frameworks for calibration and specifications.
Work on using the production capacity of the unemployed in the industrial sector and managing the industrialization of non-traditional production fields and entering new industrial areas in accordance with global industrial progress and technological development.
Exchange of specialist knowledge in the field of research and technology as well as development and transfer in the industry sector with Arabic and international institutions, as well as focusing on the use of Syrian and Arabic expertise abroad and creating units for managing technology of transferred industrial activities.
Rationalization of energy consumption with the use of energy-saving production methods and paying attention to periodic maintenance in order to reduce losses and generalize the use of thermal insulation and thermally closed circuits as well as the use of new and renewable energy sources.
Development and modernization of the information base, in particular with regard to existing production capacities, geographical distribution, design possibilities and industries, and encouraging the production of major components of major industrial projects. Create companies that serve as a general contractor and direct them to deeper local production and development of existing equipment with an engineering project and ensure financing of this process from research and development budgets.
Protecting the environment against industrial pollution by paying attention to the use of clean technologies.
Re-distribution of production and industrial activities in accordance with their priority and increase of procedural burdens in the production process.
To expand the creation of export-oriented industries, encourage investors to establish basic industries and pay attention to the continuous and specialist training of industrial workers, establishing basic principles and standards for the evaluation of these policies, namely periodic measurements of continuous growth of productivity, profitability, development, innovation and job creation.
Achieve appropriate regional distribution of industrial activities and achieve technological progress and the ability to react quickly to changing conditions, in particular in production formations.

The industry must maximize added value through the continuous deepening of local production, which depends on the mechanisms of supply and demand, assimilation of technological development and current economic and social changes in the world, including scientific innovation, market development and diversity. Tastes.

The foundations of industrial success in Syria, as well as the presence of advanced infrastructure, are based on social, political and legislative stability, in particular on regulations encouraging investors to invest and facilitate them. In addition to the availability of various areas of industrial activity characterized by the existence of large markets for their products, these markets are constantly expanding their areas to encourage increased production and comparative advantages and competitiveness in terms of costs and prices. Availability of qualified workforce.

Industrial development will be the most important factor of economic development, and industrial development will be the most important area of work in the next phase to maximize Syria’s production capacity, which requires the use of available production capacities, attracting more new investments, To optimize the size of each unit, human resources development (work and management) was prepared for the intense competition that these products may encounter in global markets and domestic markets after the liberalization of foreign trade. And provide the modern infrastructure necessary to create a strong and competitive industry and its success.

Professor Dr. Moustafa El-Abdallah, Alkafry

Damascus, Syria, PO Box 12341

Email: moustafa.alkafri@gmail.com