Syria and Saudi Arabia sign multibillion-dollar investment deals | Business and Economy News

The Alaf Fund will finance the projects with the purchase of $2 billion for two airports in Aleppo city from Saudi investors.

Syria and Saudi Arabia have signed a major investment package in aviation, energy, real estate and telecommunications as Damascus’s new leadership seeks to rebuild after a devastating 14-year civil war.

Talal al-Hilali, head of the Syrian Investment Authority, announced a number of deals on Saturday, including the development of a new international airport in Aleppo, the launch of a low-cost Syrian-Saudi airline and a telecommunications project called SilkLink aimed at turning the country into a regional hub.

Saudi Arabia has been a key supporter of Syria’s new leaders, who took power in December 2024 after ousting longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad, with the latest deal the largest investment since the United States lifted sanctions on the country in December.

Saudi Investment Minister Khalid al-Falih said the newly launched Elaf Fund, which aims to finance large-scale projects with the participation of Saudi private sector investors, will pledge $2 billion (7.5 billion Saudi riyals) to develop two airports in the Syrian city of Aleppo.

Rebuilding the Syrian economy

Syria’s Minister of Communications and Information Technology Abdussalam Haykal said his country would invest about $1 billion in the telecommunications sector, with plans to lay thousands of kilometers of cables to boost connectivity between Asia and Europe.

Saudi budget carrier Flynas and the Syrian Civil Aviation Authority announced that they have signed an agreement to establish a new airline called “Flynas Syria”, which will be 51 percent owned by the Syrian side and is expected to begin operations in the fourth quarter of 2026.

Syria’s Energy Ministry also signed a water deal with Saudi Arabia’s ACWA Power, which is known for running projects in power generation and desalinated water production plants in the Middle East and beyond.

Al-Hilali said the agreements “targeted critical sectors that affect people’s lives and form essential pillars for rebuilding the Syrian economy”.

US envoy to Syria Tom Barrack praised the Saudi-Syrian agreement on “Strategic partnerships in aviation, infrastructure and telecommunications will contribute meaningfully to Syria’s reconstruction efforts,” he said.

But Benjamin Faev, senior research analyst at Karam Shaar Advisory, took a more cautious stance, saying in the short term the deals matter “far more as a political signal than an economic game changer.”

The government has faced criticism in the past year for making sweeping development promises based on written pledges with foreign investors, many of which have not yet been converted into binding contracts.