5 February 2009
Bank engages Syria on reforms to its transportation sector, while its technical assistance activities - and its overall strategy for the country - remain unavailable.
On Tuesday, February 3, the Arabic Syrian daily Al-Watan reported that a delegation from the World Bank is visiting Syria and has met with officials in the Ministry of Transportation to discuss cooperation to reform the transportation sector in the country. The World Bank would provide technical assistance to the Syrian government to introduce public-private partnerships to the sector. For its part, the World Bank has kept silent on this matter.
According to the Bank’s website, the World Bank has financed 20 operations in the country for a total commitment of $661 million. However, the Bank does not have an active lending program for Syria, and has not approved new lending since 1986. Its activities have mainly involved technical assistance and advisory services that cover the financial sector, electricity, agriculture and irrigation, water and sanitation, transportation, education, health and social sectors. However, the Bank’s research in these areas has not been released publicly, and its policy interventions in these critical sectors remain unknown.
In early 2008, a delegation from the World Bank visited Syria to begin preparations for an Interim Strategy Note (ISN), which the Bank typically prepares in place of the usual Country Assistance Strategy (CAS) to guide Bank operations over the short term in countries emerging from conflict or where the Bank has not been active for some time. To date, however, the status of the ISN remains unknown, as well as the extent of public consultations, if any, that feed into the document. Indeed, the Bank’s disclosure policy with regard to country strategies does not operate under a presumption of disclosure, as strategies are not disclosed without permission from the government, so it is unlikely that Syria’s strategy will become publicly available.
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