Syria took an additional step toward setting up a stock exchange when President Bashar Assad issued a decree to the market, Syria's state news agency reported on Monday, but there was no word on when it would be operational. The Damascus Stock Market is to be an independent entity responsible for regulating and developing financial markets and related activities, according to a decree Assad issued late on Sunday, SANA reported. In summer 2005, Assad ratified a law to establish a stock market and shortly after set up a committee to work out the details. Sunday's decree completes the legal framework for the exchange but does not give a date when it would open.
Political and economic freedoms are extremely limited in Syria. Assad, since taking power in 2000, has taken small steps toward liberalizing the economy, including allowing private ownership of banks and currency exchange bureaus. Syrian Finance Minister Mohammed Hussein anticipated the bourse would start operating in 2007, SANA reported. "It's a dream come true. It reflects the credibility of the policy of economic openness and development espoused by Syria," said Mohammed Imadi, head of the committee Assad established to hammer out the regulations for the market.