Executive Summary
The country of Syria “is an Asian country located on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea, bordering Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan and Palestine to the south, the Mediterranean Sea and Lebanon to the west (Benn 2010 p. 138). Some people like to refer to it as the Euphrates, famous from industrialization and civilization of Mesopotamia.
Syria is in the headlines currently for all the wrong reasons one may say. These reasons are based on the riots to demonstrate about the politics of the country and the struggle for ‘democracy’. Devlin indicates that, “The People and Their Culture Syria is a Muslim society, that is to say, six out of seven Syrians identify themselves as Muslims” (1983 p. 25).
And the “Syrians still resent the loss of so many lands and peoples formerly associated with their country. Syria’s people are mostly Arabs, and the major religion is Islam, although there are other ethnic and religious minorities” (Morrison and Woog, 2008 p. 16).
Once a revolution is experienced in a state, there may be many reasons for that to happen. One may be able to emancipate people from political tyranny or poor state of the country. Whichever the reasons are, this paper examines why Syria is classified as a developing country.
The World Bank definition of developing countries includes all low income and middle income countries (except economies with a population of less than 30000), including countries in transition (Ross and Harmsen, 2001 p.4). The question then should be, is Syria a developing economy country or is it developed? The paper tries to examine the situation in the country focusing mainly on the status of its economy and why the country is a developing country.
Statement of the Problem
In the recent past, Syria has hit the headlines because of its security situation. The security situation became worse because of the uprising popularly known as the Arab uprising which hit countries like Libya, Morocco, Egypt and now Syria which are Arab countries. It is rare for the masses to rise against their governments in protest.
Uprising usually comes in when people realise they are being oppressed or have been made political slaves of a given family lineage. The situation in the Arab countries has been associated with long serving heads of state. With the world economy dwindling and food prices escalating, the masses have experienced inflation in their houses. Generally, people are facing extreme conditions and the gap between the rich and the poor is widening which may make people to revolt.
Considering the situation in Syria, what would be the state of the economy of Syria? Developing, underdeveloped and developed countries are the terms used to explain the economic status of a country. The characteristics which are common to these countries are specified by the definition itself. Poverty, income and accumulated capital backwardness in technique by the standards of North America, Western Europe and Australia.
But even with respect of these characteristics, there are big differences between the under developed countries and the rich under developed countries and is close to the poorest advanced country (Perthes, 2004 p.4). The state of the economy of one country as compared to the other determines whether it will trade competitively. The economic growth of a country as well depends mainly on the policies and legislation that encourages business activities while protecting the consumer.
The work of the Central Bank to control the flow of money and curbing of money crimes is also very important. With this information, the basis of this study is set and the main point is to analyse and conclude that Syria is a developing country. It will also be important to analyse the actual state of the economy of Syria. In summative phrase, the main theme is to prove that Syria is considered a developing country.
Objectives
The main objective of this report is to explain why Syria is a developing country. To achieve this objective, it would be subdivided to more discrete objectives that can be quantified as follows:
- To find out the indicators of underdevelopment
- To find out the remedies put in place by the government in improving the state of the economy in Syria
- To find out the problems preventing the moving out of underdevelopment in Syria and why are the remedies are not being effected effectively
- What is the political will in the improvement of the economic status
- What are factors contributing mainly to the state of the economy in Syria
As this report tries to sum up the objectives above, it is proper to state that in Syria, “a state agricultural policy also becomes more essential, now that the obstacles to expansion of the cultivated area have been removed by mechanization and water control it is time to think of better farming” (Taheri 2002 p. 22). Perhaps these statements that may have been made years ago would have made sense now that the economy is far from a developed country’s economy.
Ethical Considerations on the Report
The work reported in this work is purely based on the available information from academic and credible internet sources. The report is a collection of information trying to analyse the state of the economy of Syrian as indicated by the scholarly and other peoples work. The report is none biased to the best of the ability of the writer. However, some of the information may not be verified but the sources of the information are credible.
Extreme care is to taken in giving fair reporting of the information and as accurate as possible. It would be awkward to imply religion, racial or even economic discrimination. The careful selection of the sources of information presented in this report gives it the credibility that may be desired.
Other issues relating to copying someone else’s work without person is well taken care of by citation and actual request for information. Otherwise, all information relating to information rights were strictly adhered to. The work is also presented in a way that does not prejudice the Syrian people in any way.
The Economic Status as Indicated by World Bank Economy (2010)
*according to International Monetary Fund (IMF 2010) statistics
The data above shows the average transactions in terms of the economic activities being carried out by the Syrian people in income generation. These factors generally explain the state of the economy. The relationship between exports and economic growth, including the direction of causality between the two variables has been a subject of much debate in the international economics literature over the past two decades (Kaushik, Arbenser and Klein 2008 p. 155).
It is vividly clear that the relationship between imports and exports of a particular country mainly determines the state of the economy. Despite this fact, other players may come like the ability of the citizens to afford basic needs like food, clothing and shelter. From the above report of World Bank, it is clear that Syria is a developing country.
According to Benn (2010, p.8), “in its extreme form, it is characterized by lack of basic human needs such as adequate and nutritious food, clothing, clean water and health services.” Agba et al (2009, p. 1) believe that poverty is a state where people lack basic human commodities which are inadequate food, clothes and housing. If the poverty level of a country is that one that 20% or more people are living below the poverty line then, even if the country has a balanced importation versus exportation, it is terribly underdeveloped.
When we look at the economic indicators in comparison with the population, an assumption that one can make is that the country is a middle economy country. A middle economy country is a country that is developing at a very high rate per year. The Syria crisis could be a deterrence of the growth.
The installation of proper development policies that encourage investment both local and international would be a brilliant thing that any government must do. Another thing is that the government must be in a position to work ways of increasing exports in other goods other than petroleum products and tourism so as to encourage foreign income.
The World Bank (2012) classifies countries using some Criteria. According to World Bank (2012), “Economies are divided according to 2010 GNI per capita, calculated using the World Bank Atlas method.” The groups are classified as; low income, $1,005 or less; lower middle income, $1,006 – $3,975; upper middle income, $3,976 – $12,275; and high income, $12,276 or more (“Data” 2012). From the assumption, Syria is a developing economy.
Array of Indicators
What would be the indicators of underdevelopment in Syria? A nation that is developing is defined as country whose cumulative average income is much below that of industrialised states. Such economies are characterised by low volumes of exports and traditional agricultural techniques.
Food supply in these countries does not meet the demands of the population. “Developing nations have also been called underdeveloped nations,” (Hirsch, Kett and Trefil 2102 pp. 316). Having this in mind, one can be able to list the indicators of Syria as a developing country. From the IMF classification, it is evident that Syria is a middle lower income country. According to Syria Agriculture (2012), the following indicators are listed: “
- Farming methods are crude: The average farmer’s reliance on out dated and inefficient irrigation methods is a major obstacle to improving agricultural outputs. The introduction of drip, sprinkler, and subsurface irrigation methods is handicapped because of the limited amount of money available to the common farmer. Because of these shortcomings, Syria is susceptible to food shortages during long droughts.”
- The decline of oil reserves, therefore, casts a shadow of uncertainty on the sustainability of the current Syrian economic program as oil revenues decline, the government could be faced with hard times (Cavendish 2006 pp. 280). This kind of economic activity is serious pegged on the amount of the reserves that are available for export. The economy mainly depends on the oil industry but it is affected by extremist activities and terrorism. Sometimes the country has been put under economic sanctions which are not healthy.
- According to Sukkar (2006, p.33), “Al-Utri attributed the moderate performance of the Syrian economy to eight negative factors which will be explored more fully in the subsequent analysis:
- Weakness in the performance of some economic sectors and low personal income
- Population growth pressures
- Dependency of export on declining oil production
- Small return on investment
- Low levels of national and foreign investments
- Low productivity and growing unemployment
- Low levels of wages and corresponding low levels of incentives
- Poor technical standards in the production sectors.”
The indicators listed above are characteristics of an unstable middle economy of the state of Syria. It is clear that if there is a problem in any economy in its production and labour channels, then one can conclude that the economy is facing hard times in the economic development of the country.
With the facts presented, it is evident that the economy of this country needs a number of remedies in order to forge forward and move away from a low middle income economy to a higher middle income economy as the oil reserves are getting depleted. Therefore, one can conclude that Syria is a developing country (United Nations Development Program, 2012).
Remedies of the indicators of Underdevelopment
In every situation a country gets into, there are avenues through which it can forge its prosperity ahead. This purely depends on the political will and the workmanship of the people of the country. The policies that will be designed and followed to the later will enable the country to do great things in economic development. Syria put in place such remedies to the obstacles of development in the country and are examined below.
At times, the economic policies of a country do not rhyme with the demand of its local market thereby, going against each other. This in turn makes it difficult for the government to go beyond its boundaries to look for foreign markets (“AKDN” 2012). The country is using development partners in wealth creation and foreign investments to increase employment opportunities which are not enough for the ever growing population.
A high population may be a very good market for locally produced goods but if production is not sufficient, there is extreme pressure on the available products. That will cause an undesirable effect of high prices and occasional lack of commodities for sale. The increase in population should be looked at carefully and be controlled as much as possible with regard to the growth of the economy.
For instance, “the Aga Khan foundation introduced the Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development (AKFED) and the Aga Khan Trust for Culture which are proposing investments that will combine tourism development with conservation and re-use of landmark monuments, rehabilitation of historic areas, urban planning, and wide-ranging socio-economic development to boost living conditions in historic areas and create new opportunities for residents” (Aga Khan Development Network 2012). This may help in the improvement of the tourism sector which will increase employment opportunities in Syria.
Talking about policies that affect both international and local business in the country is a thing that the government has been trying to do in order to make the country sail ahead. Simmers et al (2008, p.67) stated that, “as indicated by the U.S. Library of Congress, spot shortages of basic commodities occurred frequently and industry operated far below capacity because of routine power outages.
Foreign exchange reserves plummeted, the trade deficit widened, and real gross domestic product (GDP) growth fell as economic difficulties compounded. Although the government instituted limited reforms to respond to the burgeoning crisis, Syria’s pressing economic problems required a radically restructured economic policy to improve future economic performance”.
It is clear that the policy makers and implementers have not thought of far reaching effects of the policies they make and try to implement. Its trade partners like Iraq have been in a series of crisis activities which have been making trade with its neighbours very difficult. It is recorded that Iraq that was under war had sanctions but since Syria is its neighbour, it was allowed to trade with it (Simmmers et al 2008, p.9).
As it engaged in the trade of essential commodities, the country helped Iraq to smuggle oil to other countries which was against the sanctions that were put. This made Syria to be charged at the United Nations Security council and later, Iraq was attached and it lost because the pipeline they purported they were trying was destroyed. These and many more instability issues affected largely its endeavours in economic policies hence, dragging it to be a developing economy (Aldosari 2002, p.6).
Modernisation theory, “sees economic development as a process by which traditional societies become more complex and differentiated, in order for economic development to take place, modernisation theory proposes that countries have to change their traditional attitudes, values and institutions” (Andersen and Taylor 2007 p. 252).
Syria however, did not embrace much change in its development. For instance, it did not open the internet services as fast and the telecommunication facilities were so much controlled by the government. If some of these ways of disseminating information cannot be liberalised so that people can communicate freely and effectively, a country may lag behind.
A number of Syrians are Muslim extremists which mean that they had to conserve some values that may not be good for economic development. An example perhaps could be the fact that Muslim women cannot work in a bar would really affect the tourism sector in one way or another.
Things like satellite TV, Facebook, twitter and other social networks were not allowed in the country. The information system was strictly controlled implying that there was no innovation or even copying from the outer world. However, since the effects of these restrictions were evident, the government allowed people to access social sites.
In February 2011, Syria announced on a Wednesday that it would reopen access to social media sites like Facebook and Twitter. For the first time since 2007, Syrians were able to access these sites freely without going through proxy servers abroad (“France 24”, 2011). As the news spread, the internet activity was evident because people who were under restriction and had devised mechanisms of manoeuvring around found using the facility very easy.
Some sites and blogs were never left open to the public. This may have been confused with westernisation which in their view is a bad thing. The hate of the so called Western Culture would have influenced the thinking. This in itself indicates signs of a developing country.
Analysis of the Alternative Perspectives
Dependency
In any country, the dependency ratio is very critical in its economic status. If the economy’s population is largely containing working youth with less people depending on them, the growth of the economy may be fast.
The Age dependency ratio of the old (% of working age population) in Syria was last reported at 6.67% in 2010, and the age dependency ratio (% of working-age population) in Syria was last reported at 69.05 in 2010 according to a World Bank report released in 2011 (Trading Economics 2012).
This indicates the population that depends on the working population is very high hence, a slow growth in development. If this won’t change in a few years, then Syria may as well retard back to the low income economy rather than a developing economy that it is right now.
Post Colonialism
Chaitani’s goal is to show that the approaches to economic relations between Syria and Lebanon before and after independence did not necessarily follow the lines that one would have expected (2008 p. 268). He first lists three main groups of economic and political voices which are Syrian Arab nationalists, Lebanese Arab nationalists and Lebanese nationalists.
These divisions within the Syrian people did not work well for the economy of the country. Some of them were seen to be detrimental to the economy of the country because of the extremist’s activities within the Syrian economy. It is clear that a divided nation with political agitation is not healthy to economic development but scares aware investments.
Localism
In plain words, localism is the use of political philosophies which prioritize the local, that mainly support local production and consumption of goods, local control of government, and promotion of local history, local culture and local identity.
Clearly, this is something that can affect trade directly in the Syrian Republic. Trade is something that must involve exchange of goods and services. Syria has to be ready to buy goods from countries it sells oil to.
Critical Feminist
Hooks indicates that, “feminism is a movement to end sexism, sexist exploitation, and exploitation” (2000 p. 1). For sure, the past was so blurred because any economic opportunity was mainly directed to men. This meant that women cannot do certain things in the society just because they are women.
This has remained an issue in Syria for quite long because of the traditional and religious beliefs. Country’s that embraced the feminism strategy surely realised changes in lifestyles because the number of dependants on the working was drastically reduced. For Syria, this is still a challenge.
Religious Views
Other factors that can affect the economy are things that people believe in and which define their way of life. Religion can be defined as the spiritual beliefs and practices of an individual (Simmers et al. 2008 p. 291). Religion obviously affects people’s way of life and their day to day activities. Some religious practices are backward whereas others enable people to practice moderation in all that they do which is a good thing. In Syria however, Islamic extremism has made the economy to have little or no progress at all.
Conclusion
In conclusion, it is clear that Syria is a low middle economy country referred to as a developing country. With its numerous economic issues like unemployment, classify it as an underdeveloped country. Its economy solely depends on oil production, tourism and commerce.
Industrialisation is not coming out clearly. Another issue is that it has been in various political crises, its neighbours too have experienced political instabilities which has adversely affected its economy from time to time. Its implication of helping Iraq to smuggle oil outside the sanctions that had been put on them was a setback in its economic operations.
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