The Syrian Future Movement is closely following the accelerated steps aimed at reintegrating Syria into the global financial and digital systems, including the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology’s announcement of its engagement with international technology companies and platforms to review the remaining restrictions on Syrians’ access to a number of digital services and products.
This coincides with a significant economic and symbolic move: President Ahmed al-Sharaa made the first publicly announced payment using a Visa card in a shop in Old Damascus, in the presence of the Governor of the Central Bank of Syria, Muhammad Safwat Raslan. This serves as a practical indicator of the beginning of the return of international payment methods to Syrian economic life.
We in the Syrian Future Movement believe that these steps, while seemingly technical or banking in nature, carry a broader significance related to ending years of financial, economic, and digital isolation imposed on Syria, from which the Syrian citizen and the national economy suffered the most.
The world today no longer separates economics from technology. Electronic payment systems, digital banking services, cloud computing, e-commerce, artificial intelligence, and digital platforms have become essential components of the infrastructure of any modern economy.
It is unacceptable that Syrian students, researchers, programmers, doctors, engineers, business owners, and entrepreneurs remain deprived of tools and services available to their counterparts in most countries worldwide due to restrictions stemming from a previous political era for which Syrians have paid a heavy price for decades.
Based on this, the Syrian Future Movement affirms the following:
First: We welcome the government’s steps aimed at reconnecting Syria to the international financial and digital systems, and we consider the resumption of global payment methods an important step that should be built upon within a comprehensive economic and banking strategy.
Second: We call for the development of a clear national plan to lift Syria’s digital and financial isolation. This plan should include a comprehensive inventory of the services, platforms, software, payment networks, and banking services that remain unavailable to Syrian citizens and institutions, and a roadmap for addressing the reasons for the continued existence of these restrictions.
Third: We urge international technology and financial companies to reassess the geographical and technological restrictions imposed on Syria and to refrain from automatically continuing to apply procedures established under political and legal circumstances that have fundamentally changed.
Fourth: We see the necessity of accelerating the development of the electronic payment system in all Syrian governorates and expanding the deployment of point-of-sale terminals, bank cards, and electronic wallets. This will facilitate citizens’ lives, reduce excessive reliance on cash, and enhance financial inclusion.
Fifth: We emphasize that modernizing payment methods must be accompanied by a genuine modernization of the Syrian banking sector, strengthening governance and transparency standards, combating money laundering and terrorist financing, and protecting consumers. This will help restore confidence in Syrian financial institutions and pave the way for stable international banking relationships.
Sixth: We call for prioritizing the lifting of restrictions on tools related to education, scientific research, cloud computing, software, artificial intelligence, e-commerce, and remote work, given the direct impact these sectors have on developing Syrian human capital and creating new economic opportunities.
Seventh: We believe it is essential to empower Syrian youth, programmers, freelancers, entrepreneurs, and startups by providing them with access to international work, service, payment, and trade platforms. This will allow Syrian talent to be transformed from a source of emigration or underutilized potential into a productive force within the national economy.
Eighth: We emphasize that financial and digital openness is not complete simply by introducing international cards and platforms to the Syrian market. It requires a modern domestic environment that includes fast and accessible internet, advanced communications infrastructure, modern digital legislation, protection of personal data, effective cybersecurity, and a banking sector capable of meeting international standards.
Ninth: We call upon the Central Bank of Syria and relevant government agencies to work on restoring banking relationships with international financial institutions and correspondent banks. This will facilitate transfers, foreign trade, investment, and the movement of legitimate capital, and reduce the cost of financial transactions for Syrian citizens and companies.
The Syrian Future Movement believes that the sight of an international bank card being used in a Damascus shop holds significant symbolic value. However, true success will be achieved when this becomes a standard service available to every citizen, merchant, and investor in Damascus, Aleppo, Homs, Daraa, Deir ez-Zor, Idlib, the coast, and all other Syrian governorates.
Economic transformation is not measured by the first payment, but by the millions of transactions that follow. It is not measured by the availability of a single global service, but by the Syrian people’s ability to access the global economy naturally and securely.
Rebuilding Syria is not merely about rebuilding physical structures, but about rebuilding the financial, banking, and digital systems that connect Syrian citizens, the state, and the economy to the world.
We in the Syrian Future Movement believe that Syria has a historic opportunity to transition from an economy crippled by war, isolation, and reliance on cash to a more open, transparent, digital, and competitive economy.
Just as Syria is regaining its place in the world politically, it must also regain its place economically, financially, and digitally.
