DAMASCUS - Adraa Industrial City in Damascus Countryside played an important role in attracting Arab and foreign investments, making strides in industrial growth and providing job opportunities since it was established six years ago.
Investments in the Industrial City of Adraa by the end of May 2011 amounted to SYP 239 billion, 46% of which are Arab and foreign investments and the rest 54% are Syrian investments.
Director of Adraa Industrial City Ziad Baddour said the City was established according to the legislative decree no. 57 for 2004, covering an area of 7000 hectares.
Baddour indicated to the City important location since it is close to Damascus and is a part of the transport network on Damascus-Homs and Damascus-Palmyra highways, in addition to two railways for transporting passengers and goods.
He explained the facilitations provided for all industrialists who want to start new investments such as the land, payment in installment, best services including water, electricity, telecommunication and transport, in addition to adopting one-stop policy.
Baddour said "we have completed 4 stages of establishing the city's main infrastructures by the end of 2010. The City general plan is divided into two main parts. The first part is allocated for establishing 6000 industrial areas for different textile, chemical, food and construction facilities over a 3500-hectare area. The second part covers an area of 3500 hectares for trade, residential, administrative, and services buildings, in addition to green areas."
70% of the industrial area is allocated for engineering and chemical industries, followed by 20% for food industries, then textile industries with 10%, he added.
The residential area covers 1330 hectares, 19% of the whole area. It includes 60,000 residential units and capacity for 300,000 persons, in addition to sports city, motels, vocational training institutes, Technological and Technical University and cultural centers.
More than 45,959 workers are employed, in addition to the City Director's efforts to provide 200,000 job opportunities within the next four years.
12 public and private banks were put into service in the City and started offering their services including deposits, withdrawals, loans and other bank facilitations.
Adraa Industrial City is putting the final touch to launch the electronic gate service which contains all information related to investment rules in order to activate electronic services and facilitate communication via the internet.
In order to contribute to reducing environment pollution and population pressure, the Industrial City of Adraa established sewage treatment plants and solid waste management plants , in addition to monitoring gas emissions.
© SANA (Syria Arab News Agency) 2011
