Investment Execution Concentrates on Megaprojects
- Issue 19
By: Ben Feve
Since the fall of the Assad regime, the Advisory has tracked 46 economic agreements between Syrian public entities and foreign companies.
However, only 21 had disclosed investment values, totaling USD 21.5 billion, according to our tracking. Among this subset, only four projects have been implemented, and another four are under implementation. Together, they account for USD 12.1 billion, or 56 percent of all publicly disclosed investment value.
This concentration becomes even more pronounced when comparing individual projects. The two projects led by UCC Holding and its partners—the USD 7 billion power-generation project and the USD 4 billion Damascus International Airport project—count for USD 11 billion. In other words, two projects alone represent roughly half of all disclosed investment value.
Project implementation is concentrated in infrastructure sectors. Five of the eight projects are in transport and logistics, two in energy, and one in real estate. Energy and transport account for virtually all disclosed investment value.
Infrastructure implementation is concentrated among large-scale projects backed by well-capitalized investors. In contrast, many smaller agreements remain in preparatory stages awaiting financing, regulatory approvals, or final contractual arrangements.
Many announced projects have received no subsequent public updates, making it difficult to determine whether they remain active, have been abandoned, or superseded. The Damascus Financial Center project, for example, appears to have replaced the earlier Damascus Towers project signed with the little-known Italian company UBAKO.
These figures do not necessarily imply failure. Memoranda of understanding (MoUs) are non-binding expressions of intent, and some attrition is normal. Nevertheless, the data suggest that Syria’s investment drive and, to an even greater extent, its economic recovery are increasingly dependent on a small number of flagship projects tied to specific foreign backers.