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Overview
The Syrian economy heavily relies on the country’s oil and gases reserves and the agricultural sector, which each accounts for roughly half of the country’s GDP. Due to US economic sanctions and a government largely opposed to privatisation, the country has developed at a slower rate than many of its neighbouring countries.
The slower development has kept the country from attracting the international firms that frequent the region and ensured that local firms remain small. However, over the last few years, the country’s legal system has undergone major changes with the alteration of many of the fundamental laws and the introduction of new regulations.
The changes to banking law that were introduced in 2001 have already had a major affect on the finance sector, while the 2007 introduction of laws allowing foreign investment into real estate are only starting to be felt now. The changes continued to roll out in 2008, with the introduction of new company, commercial and arbitration laws.
The host of changes has created an ever-growing amount of work for the country’s law firms, with some already entering into mergers to better handle the increased volume of work. However, it will take some time for the effects of the changes to reach the market and it is yet uncertain what the changes will mean for the country’s legal market.