Syria looks to reform economically in post-Assad era
The World
PRX
4.6 • 943 Ratings
🗓️ 23 January 2025
⏱️ 49 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Syria's economy under the previous government was tightly managed by former President Bashar al-Assad, his family and close associates. But now, Syria's new government is looking to introduce economic reform to further liberalize Syria's economy, which remains heavily sanctioned by the US and Europe. Also, in most cities, transit systems are government-run. But in Japan, that’s not the case. The network of trains, subways and buses considered among the best on earth is run by private companies. We take a peek at how it works. And, around the globe, thousands of refugees are stranded since President Donald Trump paused the US resettlement program in a series of executive orders; a look at how that pipeline works, and how it's been disrupted.
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| 0:00.0 | Syria is making a push to strengthen its standing on the world stage. |
| 0:10.4 | People on the ground have more basic needs. |
| 0:13.1 | You name everything, electricity, water supply, fuels, public services. |
| 0:19.3 | I'm Carolyn Beeler. |
| 0:20.6 | And I'm Marco Wurman, building a new economy in Syria. |
| 0:24.0 | Also, what's next for thousands of refugees who were headed to the U.S. |
| 0:27.7 | before a resettlement program was paused? |
| 0:30.3 | In Turkey, outrage after a deadly fire. |
| 0:33.7 | You don't cut corners on safety. |
| 0:36.0 | And Oscar nominations are in. |
| 0:38.0 | One French movie got 13 nods. |
| 0:40.2 | That is the same number of nominations as Oppenheimer had last year. |
| 0:44.8 | The difference being, for me, that Oppenheimer is an enduring impressive accomplishment. |
| 0:50.9 | Ouch. |
| 0:51.9 | That's all ahead today on the world. |
| 0:58.1 | This is the world. I'm Marco Werman. And I'm Carolyn Beeler. Thanks for being here today. Syria has been finding its footing since militants brought down the Assad regime in December. The new government has been on a high-speed campaign to strengthen |
| 1:11.9 | its diplomatic standing abroad. But for Syrians themselves, one of the most urgent needs is |
| 1:17.2 | economic reform. That's going to be hard. The country is emerging from war and remains under |
| 1:22.4 | tough sanctions from the U.S. and the EU. Karam Shah is a Syrian economist who's been talking with the new government. |
| 1:29.5 | He joined us from Damascus and explained how much Syria has to overcome. |
| 1:33.7 | Practically, right before the downfall of the asset regime, |
| 1:37.2 | Syria was a typical textbook case of crony capitalism, |
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