Roundup: Syria presses for rationalizing administrative spending citing huge economic losses
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E-mail Xinhua, October 4, 2012
Roundup: Syria presses for rationalizing administrative spending citing huge economic losses
DAMASCUS, Oct. 3 (Xinhua) -- The Syrian government has said that the country's top priority would be to address the protracted crisis, confessing that the economic losses have been estimated at more than 2,000 billion Syrian pounds (about 30 billion U.S. dollars).
In his latest address before the parliament on Tuesday, the Syrian Prime Minister Wael al-Halqi underscored the importance of undertaking all necessary measures to rationalize and adjust the current spending and investment and focus on securing the basic needs of citizens and provide them with basic foodstuff, drugs and oil derivatives.
Halqi said the government, while preparing the draft budget, has taken into consideration measures to press administrative spending and allocate funds to rehabilitate establishments and infrastructure damaged during the current events in the country.
He said that the country's total losses, owing to the ongoing terrorism on its private and public establishments, has amounted to 2,300 billion Syrian pounds (about 34.8 billion dollars) and noted that this figure is poised to increase "due to sabotaging acts carried out by armed terrorist group that aim to drain the national Syrian economy."
The economic sanctions that have been imposed on the country by most world countries to accelerate the collapse of the Syrian government have enormously squeezed the Syrian economy. Businesses are going down the drain, and inflation broke the record by reaching 37 percent last month.
The crisis also caused widespread fuel shortages. Supplies of diesel and cooking gas were running short because of the sanctions.
Halqi said that the losses of the oil sector over the current year have been estimated at 245 billion Syrian pounds (3.7 billion dollars), stressing that the government is persisting in its subsidy of oil derivations and other food supplies.
He indicated that the government's oil and food subsidy has amounted to 705 billion pounds (10.9 billion U.S. dollars).
The premier also said that the government has to address the issue of displaced Syrians as the spiraling violence in some Syrian cities has forced more than two million Syrians to flee their areas to safer places, mainly in the capital Damascus.
He said that the number of the displaced Syrian families is estimated at 3.2 million people -- noting that those people have been displaced from their houses inside the same city or to other provinces.
A recent statement issued by the United Nations said two million people are now estimated to have been affected by the crisis and over one million have been internally displaced. More than 200,000 people have crossed into Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey and Iraq.
Halqi indicated that the government has ensured shelter centers for those families and has established 2,132 shelter centers nationwide, stressing that the enormous efforts exerted by the government to restore security and stability have contributed in evacuating 587 schools, reducing thus the number of shelter centers to 1,500.
Halqi said the government has primarily allocated one billion pounds to assist families affected by the terrorism.
He also added that the country would always work to meet the requirements of its people and achieve food, economic and social security.
According to a recent assessment carried out by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, the UN World Food Programme and Syria's Ministry of Agriculture and Agrarian Reform, some three million people are in need of food, crops and livestock assistance.
The Syrian agricultural sector has lost a total of 1.8 billion U.S. dollars this year as a result of the ongoing crisis. This includes losses and damages to crops, livestock and irrigation systems. Strategic crops, such as wheat and barley, have been badly affected. Enditem
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