Shattered Economy Challenges Syrians

Sanctions, years of conflict leave a lot for inexperienced leaders to overcome

- OMAR ABDEL-BAQUI

DAMASCUS, Syria-More than a decade of civil war left Syria's economy in shambles.

The country lost billions of dollars in oil exports. Inflation forced Syrians to carry massive wads of cash to pay for basics, and nearly one-third of the country was estimated to suffer from extreme poverty.

To rebuild, Syria's new leaders must confront challenges that include persuading Western powers to lift sanctions and regaining control of the oil sector. They will need help from foreign businesses and states, and some of the millions of Syrians who fled the country during the civil war.

"We need the know-how for doing business, we need the technology, we need plenty of things," said Mohammad Hallak, owner of a generations-old food-trading company and vice president of the Damascus Chamber of Commerce. "We especially need sanctions to be raised in order to make the banking system work properly and to move forward." On the streets of Damascus, the downfall of the Assad regime has brought optimism about the country's future.

Prices are dropping, and people are conducting transactions in foreign currencies for the first time in years. Hotel lobbies are teeming with Turkish businessmen looking to cut deals with Syrians.

The new rulers, the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, say they want to build a freemarket economy, revitalize the oil industry and forge international partnerships. But while HTS publicly cut ties with al Qaeda years ago and has sought to cast itself as a more moderate Islamist group, the U.S., European Union and United Nations still designate it as a terrorist organization and have kept sanctions in place, giving them leverage while they watch to see how the new government manages the diverse populations and handles issues such as women's rights.

For Turkey, which has ties to HTS, a rebuilding role would boost its own construction industry and counter Kurdish forces that control territory along the Turkish border.