Damascus, Syria - Recent

Storyline:
Expo Syria 2024, which opened Wednesday at the Exhibition City in Damascus, has drawn over 600 domestic companies from various sectors and attracted more than 3,000 foreign traders and business people.

Among the 600 Syrian companies participating, 200 are in the food sector, 250 are in textiles, and the rest are in pharmaceuticals and engineering.

Syria is a traditional agricultural country, with food companies being the first to recover. Olive oil products have entered the Chinese market through the China International Import Expo (CIIE) in Shanghai.

Syrian business representatives and industry insiders view the country's first international trade expo as a significant opportunity for local businesses to enter global markets.

Syria aims to boost exports to generate more foreign exchange for the country.

However, Syrian companies faced numerous difficulties in resuming exports due to economic sanctions imposed by European and American countries.

As of June 2024, Syria's exports amount to approximately 500 million euros (about 555.52 million U.S. dollars).

Shotlist:
Damascus, Syria - Recent:
1. Various of Exhibition City for Expo Syria 2024, national flags;
2. Various of visitors, exhibitors, products at Syria Export Expo;
3. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) exhibitor from Kuwait (name not given) (starting with shot 2/ending with shot 4):
"I will import chocolate biscuit to become its exclusive distributor in Kuwait. Apart from textiles, I also noticed exquisite handmade wool products from Syrians, which I will import to Kuwait and become the distributor."
4. Various of visitors, exhibitors, products at Syria Export Expos;
5. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Thaer Fayyad, head of Support and Development Authority for Local Production and Exports (starting with shot 4/ending with shot 6):
"Exporting goods has many benefits, such as positively impacting the livelihoods of the Syrian people and boosting the Syrian Pound's exchange rate against other currencies, as well as creating job opportunities domestically. That's why the ministry and the government are doing their best to increase the exports in Syria as they can."
6. Various of visitors, exhibitors, products at Syria Export Expo;
7. Board showing "Expo Syria 2024";
8. Visitors, booths of participating companies;
9. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Thaer Fayyad, head of Support and Development Authority for Local Production and Exports (starting with shots 7-8):
"Sanctions and global situation have severely impacted our procurement of raw materials from abroad. We are facing issues with shipping routes. We are transferring these materials to neighboring or Gulf countries before shipping them elsewhere, all of which increases costs."
10. Various of visitors, booths of participating companies.

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