We Are into the Odyssey

by Abdullah Al Darari

Abdullah Al Dardari
Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs of Syria

There is an Arab saying that means “Maybe it is a blessing in disguise.”
We have learned by now, after the global financial crisis, that our European partners are convinced that the southern shores of the Mediterranean are not only a source of problems related to illegal immigration flows. Now that the rate of growth is higher than 5.5% and Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria are developing new initiatives to push up their economic development, we should cooperate and provide assistance.
The southern Mediterranean is a challenging area full of opportunities to plan the future.
For instance, Syria has planned investments of 100 billion dollars for the next five years to achieve a growth rate of more than 6% per year by building energy infrastructure, oil and gas pipelines, railways, highways and other communication routes between our region and Europe, the East and the West as expected by our role in history.
We observe with some displeasure that Italian companies do not play the role they deserve in this huge process we call “Mediterranean Odyssey” in which everyone is contributing.
We should turn this crisis into an opportunity and we should take our cue from it in order to build an integrated network of energy and infrastructure and to create the favourable conditions for cooperation between Arab and European small and medium-sized enterprises.
There are another two key points.
First, this process cannot be completed without a comprehensive peace deal in the Middle East that leads, in principle, to the full enjoyment of civil rights and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state, with Jerusalem as its capital. The second point is the right of return of expatriates.
We should really work as partners. We can no longer live under the same sky without being equal.
The principles mentioned above are now critical for the success of this adventure, which is herald of opportunities more than challenges, as shown by the global crisis.
We, the citizens of the Mediterranean, can only remain close to the thinking of the twenty-first century and the vision of the future.