January 2001

Syria Master report

This is the final Regulatory Developments report on Syria as the ESIS project ended in January 2001. This Master Report covers the whole period of the ESIS project surveying the Mediterranean area, March 1999 - January 2001 inclusive. 

Telecommunications has always been a state monopoly and there is no indication that this will change in the near future. The Syrian Telecommunications Establishment (STE - www.syriatel.net) is wholly owned by the Syrian government and is responsible for providing telephone services, payphones, data communications, all forms of wired and wireless communications and Internet connections. It also operates a number of satellite-earth stations.

2.1 Historical overview and general legislation:

Since Information Society is still a new concept in Syria, there is still no explicit general policy or legislation for IS. But positive intentions are asserted strongly, followed by some concrete actions, such as the national programme for the dissemination of Informatics and the establishment of higher education faculties or institutes, such as the four faculties for computer engineering, which are the incarnation of these positive intentions.

2.2 Umbrella policies an national IS strategy:

The Syrian Computer Society (SCS) has been working closely with the Government and other bodies in developing an overall Information Society policy. The main goals and policies of the SCS are:

• Offering educational, training, and lecture programs in information technologies and their applications.
• Organising conferences, symposia, exhibitions, and workshops with the collaboration of scientific and technical institutions, government organisations, and private sector companies including computer and software vendors.
• Providing support and counseling to various ministries, administrations, firms and organisations seeking to computerise their operations and management and decision-making procedures.
• Monitoring and evaluating the current status of information technology in Syria and assessing its future prospects in light of worldwide developments and trends.
• Actively promoting the introduction of information technologies on a national level, particularly those with a pervasive impact.
• Collaborating with the relevant ministries in the planning and implementation of programs for promoting nation-wide computer literacy and instituting information technology curricula and programs at the secondary school and university levels.
• Supporting research programs and activities in information technology, with particular emphasis on those related to Arabisation and computers, linguistics, Arabism software, and the consolidation of Arabic language standards in computers.
• Contributing to the elaboration and implementation of a national information technology policy.
• Planning and implementing a broad range of publicity programs and activities, in collaboration with the various national information media, with the purpose of nurturing and expanding public awareness of information technology and its applications.
• Elaborating appropriate accreditation schemes and implementation programs initially directed at information technology specialists and professionals, and at training institutes.
• Promoting the development and application of consumer protection schemes and programs.
• Supporting the growth and expansion of the national computer network in collaboration with the national communications establishments.
• Promoting regional and international co-operation programs and activities, which enhance national efforts to increase the rate of diffusion of information technology and applications in the national economy.
• Organising public relations programs and activities in support of SCS objectives and functions, including social events.
• Publishing and distribution of pamphlets, booklets, proceedings, and original or translated works related to information technology and applications, including the SCS professional journal in Arabic, The Information Culture.
• Promoting co-operation among local computer and software companies directed at achieving SCS objectives.
• Computerisation of all government institutions and making the Internet available for these institutions and businesses as well as the public at large are still the main pillars of IS in Syria. The newly formed government has again stressed this policy in its first report.

STE is making a major shift in its policy as a telecommunication monopoly regarding the national Internet backbone. A consortium is going to be formed of STE with private companies, both local and foreign, to implement and manage this backbone. The share of STE will be 25% through investments made in the telecommunications network. In fact, a call for tender has been launched on 20 November 2000 (for both local and foreigner bidders) seeking partners for the establishment of a consortium of public and private companies to build and operate the Internet network in the country. Deadline for offers is the 17 January 2001. This should provide 50000 access points for the country by the end of 2001.

The Syrian Computer Society obtained a special licence to start an ISP for its membership and university professors. The number of subscribers is currently about 2500. This is the first private ISP to operate in the country.

2.3 IS application areas:

More and more government institutions are becoming computerised and are improving their services through computerisation. This covers mainly: billing, accounting and management operations, registration and information processing, but scarcely industrial applications.

IT applications, mainly management information systems including distributed databases, are encouraged by the government and are becoming widespread in ministries, such as the Ministry of Finance (the first to introduce computers in its work in the late seventies). These systems are also becoming widespread in public agencies such as the Social Security Establishment, the Civil Register and the Public Insurance Company. Development of needed software is mostly done locally.

Banking applications are also developing and most banks (all currently government owned) are striving towards integrated systems after years of partial computerisation of their services. Although Internet banking is not yet available, it should be available soon.

Information systems open for the public through an extranet are relatively novel applications that have been pioneered by the National Information Centre (NICE). The Syrian Arab Standards and Metrology Organisation (SASMO) has recently started a project for making all standardisation documents in its possession available on-line through the Internet.

Education related software, which need to be arabised in Syria, constitute an important application area of IS that is encouraged mainly by the Ministry of Education and that of Higher Education. The first one has set an Informatics strategy for schools several years ago introduced Informatics as a subject at all levels and piloted CAL software development.

At the higher Education level, Presidential Decree No. 152 of 1997 introduced Informatics as a mandatory teaching subject to all departments and levels in the four Syrian universities (Damascus University, Aleppo University, Tishreen University, Al-Baath University). Also an IP based national academic network is being implemented to link all universities and facilitate applications in teaching and research.

2.4 Government and administration (national, regional, local):

See sections on IS application areas and Transport.

2.5 Telecommunications and the Internet:

Telecommunications has always been a state monopoly in Syria. Prior to the creation of Syrian Telecommunications Establishment (STE) as a separate telecommunications entity, there was the Public Establishment of Post and Communications (PEPC) that handled matters related to all form of communications. Presidential Decrees 1935 and 1936 dated 10/7/1975 separated the postal services from the telecommunications services by creating two establishments and cancelling the PEPC.

The first one gives STE the monopoly for all forms of wired and wireless communications, including conventional voice telephony lines, submarine lines and satellite communications. Thus, STE is the only institution that can build and operate telecommunications infrastructures. It can, however, delegate the operation of certain facilities to private (national or international companies) under contract. It can also enter into joint ventures with national or international companies on a revenue sharing basis. STE represents Syria in all regional and international federations and signs agreements related to telecommunications. The second public establishment (the Post) has the monopoly for all forms of postal services and money transfer related to these services. It represents Syria in all postal federations at the regional and international levels and signs agreements related to postal services.

Earlier this year, two private companies (InvestCom and SyriaTel) that were licensed by STE to establish and operate the first GSM pilot project in Syria with a capacity of 60,000 lines, have started service. The relatively high subscription rates kept the GSM telephony out of reach of ordinary users. But business people who are in dire need for mobile telephony have acquired a large number of lines. After 10 months about 27,500 lines have been acquired out of the 60,000 available lines.

Installation fees for the GSM subscription are around 1200 Euros, and each minute of communication costs about 0.08 to 0.05 Euro. But the GSM subscribers get a credit of about 30 Euros per month until the end of 2000. It is expected though that the subscription fees will decrease to 400 Euros with the new project mentioned below and planned to start in 2001, and this explains reticence of people to subscribe for the actual one.

The coverage of the GSM service is still very limited in space, and quality depends on the area in which communications are carried out. The two companies in charge of the service (InvestCom and SyriaTel) have expanded their services to Lattakia and have widened the area of coverage to include a corridor between Damascus and Aleppo with the city of Homs. Roaming between the two companies has also become functional.

In June 2000, a 3-year project for the implementation of 1,650,000 additional telephone lines has started. At the end of this project, the ratio number of phones (without taking in account the mobile phone) for every 100 persons will be 15.

As for the Internet, STE, which started as the sole Internet Service Provider, has increased its Internet capacity and opened the door for new subscribers who should be public or private establishments or businesses and some professionals (e.g., medical doctors and lawyers). It has reached the maximum number of lines for the current system, which is 5000 and no more increase in capacity is currently envisaged.

The cost of subscribing is still high (100 Euros), but the monthly charge has been reduced to about 20 Euros, and the tariff per minute of connection time was cut by half to 0.02 Euros.

Quality of service in the Internet has improved with the new expansion. The downtime has also been reduced giving hope for an even better service in the near future.

The Syrian Computer Society obtained a special licence to start an ISP for its membership and university professors. The number of subscribers is about 2500, but is expected to reach 5000 once the implementation of the national Internet backbone is completed. This is the first private ISP to operate in the country.

The cost of subscribing for the SCS members is about 12 Euros for 15 hours, 48 Euros for 80 hours and less than 1 Euro for every extra hour.

Very recently, a call for tender has been launched on 20 November 2000 seeking partners for establishing a consortium of public and private companies to build and operate the Internet backbone network in the country. Deadline for tenders is the 17 January 2001. This will provide 50000 access points for the country by the end of 2001. Government intention is to have 200000 access points by the year of 2005.

2.6 Electronic Commerce:

An E-Commerce Consultative Committee has been formed by the Prime Minister that includes in its membership: The Minister of Transport, the Deputy Minister of Economy & External Commerce, the Deputy Minister of Finance, the Deputy Minister of Justice, the director general of STE, and Dr. Maher Mujtahed (representative of SCS). Its main task is to make proposals about the use and regulations concerning the e-commerce.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Economy and Foreign Trade was chosen, by the International Secure Electronic Transaction Organisation (ISETO), as Registration Authority in the framework of the project of E-commerce common between World Trade Centre, the International Telecommunication Union (Geneva) and the World Internet Security company (WISEKEY).

2.7 Education and research:

The Syrian Higher Education and Research Network (SHERN) is being installed at the four state universities and should be completed by February 2001. It will also link these universities with the Higher Institute of Applied Sciences and Technology (HIAST) as well as the Ministry of Higher Education (MHE).

Training will follow on the use of the network for educational applications and on a wide spectrum of Internet-based tools for on-line teaching.

The Arab school of science and Technology, in co-operation with UNESCO, will organise during 2001 regional workshops on the theme of Basic Web Technology Skills for Courseware development. They will be addressed for university professors, in addition to the one already organised in 2000.

Four faculties specialised in Computer Engineering have been opened in the four Syrian universities, in the beginning of the school year 2000-2001. The average capacity of each is 150 students.

Two additional Intermediate institute for Computer were established this year, the first one in Aleppo and the second in Homs. A similar institute has been established at the University of Damascus ten years ago and another one at Tishreen University in Lattakia last year. The average capacity of each institute is about 100 student technicians.

At the same time, the Ministry of Education introduced Informatics as a school subject, into the syllabus of the 2nd secondary scientific section in the academic year 1999-2000. A proper training of 677 teachers was achieved for this purpose.

2.8 Transport:

The Ministry of Transport has decided to computerise all directorates in order to develop a decision support system at all levels in the ministry. A project is being planned for that purpose, with HIAST as the main consultant. Distributed databases and supporting WAN and LAN infrastructure need to be designed and implemented within the next 3 to 4 years.

2.9 Health Care

The Ministry of Health is making substantial efforts to use computers more extensively for its health-related applications. The Ministry aims at computerising management and archiving at public hospitals. It intends also to construct databases for specific diseases such cancer. The Health Minister asserts frequently his wish to introduce the technology of Tele-medicine.

2.10 Labour

There is an obvious deficiency in skilled people in the field of Information and Communications Technologies (ICT). In fact, Syrian Universities do not offer specialisation in disciplines like telecommunications. The case of computer engineering was somewhat better, since universities and intermediate institutes have made more investments. This year, four faculties specialised in Computer Engineering have been opened in the four Syrian universities. This will be very helpful for the Syrian promising ICT market.

2.11 Competition

There are no plans for total liberalisation and full competition for telecommunications services in the foreseeable future. Partial liberalisation is increasing especially in the operation of recently introduced services and in manufacturing telecommunications equipment. This is realised through contracts of partnership with STE involving either national or international private companies.

Competition exists in providing the needed telecommunication equipment for STE. It has also been announced for ISPs when implementation of the Internet backbone is completed at the national level.

One successful project carried out through competition among private telecommunication companies has been the introduction of the payphones in Syria. It has been implemented and is currently operated by a Syrian private company, under a form of partnership with STE. Also, several projects for manufacturing telephone switches have been enacted, but the most successful one is a joint venture with Samsung for the establishment of the Syrian-Korean Switch Company, which manufactures small PBXs and public switches with less than 1000 lines. These telephone exchanges are being used on a wide scale by the public sector, but also by the private sector.

2.12 Access for all

The Internet is still poorly widespread in the country. This should change with the completion of the national Internet infrastructure, which has been delayed in order to establish a "mixed" sector (public and private shares) company for that purpose. It should be implemented during 2001 and immediately afterwards, private ISPs will be able to start their services, allowing access for all individuals.

2.13 Copyright, intellectual property rights

Syria’s legal system recognises and facilitates the transfer of property rights, including intellectual property rights. The Syrian government announced its attention to join Paris Union for the International Protection of Industry Property. The Syrian government stated that it is considering accession to the 1967 Stockholm Intellectual property rights agreement. The regulation of intellectual property rights falls under the scope of the office of Property Protection of the Ministry of Supply and Internal Trade.

A draft law is being discussed at the People's Assembly for intellectual property rights (IPR). SCS has been asked to make some remarks with respect to software authoring rights. The law has not been passed yet.

2.14 Public access to data

The Internet is still poorly widespread in the country. See Section on Access for all.

2.15 Privacy, data protection, consumer protection

No significant laws are available on these subjects.

2.16 Security

Currently, there are no laws governing security aspects of electronic data interchange in Syria.

2.17 Freedom of expression and information as far as the distribution via electronic net works is concerned

Article 1 of Syria’s General Law of Printed Matter (1949) declares that "presses, bookshops and publications of all kinds are free and nothing limits their freedom except this law." The law covers mainly the regulations for establishing a print shop, licensing for publication, authors copyright protection and the regulatory aspects of professional news people as well as their rights. It is logical that this law is extended to electronic media.

This law is still in effect and gives reasonable protection to the authors within Syria, thus encouraging publication, while keeping the government in control of the contents. The Ministry of Information is responsible for checking on the fulfillment of this law.

3.1 Ministries:

No specific ministries are designated for IS regulation. But the Ministry of Communications is in charge of all what relates to telecommunications, and the Ministry of Information is in charge of regulating the flow of information into and out of the country.

The regulatory and policy making authority in charge of telecommunications issues is the Ministry of Communications, which has been established for the first time in Syria as a separate ministry in 1958 (Decree 192). Its role concerns essentially telecommunications politics. In addition, there are two separate ministries in charge of publishing information for public consumption: the Ministry of Information and the Ministry of Culture.

The Ministry of Information (www.moi-syria.com) was established in 1961 (Decree 186) with the aims of supplying the necessary information to the public and reinforcing the relations with neighbouring and friendly countries. It has full control over the local newspapers, Radio and Television as well as broadcasting and published information.

The Ministry of Culture has been established in 1958 by Presidential Decree (dated 26/6/1958) with the aims of improving the cultural level of the public and providing the necessary environment for the development of art and intellectual openness to local and international cultures. All cultural centres in Syria, whether local or foreign, are under the supervision of this ministry as well as theatres, movies, museums and libraries.

3.2 National regulatory authorities:

There is no separate regulator, nor are there plans to create a regulatory authority. The Syrian Telecommunications Establishment (STE - see below) is however responsible for regulatory issues regarding communication services such as numbering, tariff proposals, technical standards, service quality etc. The Ministry of Information is responsible for regulatory issues regarding all information dissemination including radio and television broadcasting.

In all cases the Council of Ministers is the higher authority of the State that approves the various regulatory activities.

3.3 Office for the protection of economic competition:

Founded in 1958 (Law 21), one of the roles of the Ministry of Industry (www.syr-industry) is to support the private sector, to protect local production, and to provide advantages and exemptions to develop industrial activities. It provides numerous services, consultancy, data and statistics for investors. The Ministry of Industry also makes policies to encourage investment in the industrial private sector and to develop existing industries. However, no separate office for protection of economic competition exists in Syria.

3.4 Consultative councils:

There are several consultative councils in various ministries, e.g., the Consultative Council of the Ministry of Information, that of the Ministry of Industry, that of the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs and that of the Ministry of Education. All these consultative councils study whatever issues are requested by the Minister to whom they present their report.

More recently, an e-Commerce Consultative Committee (see above in e-commerce section) has been established by the Council of Ministers, and two consultative committees are going to be established in IT: The Geographic Information Systems Committee, and the Management Information System (MIS) Committee.

3.5 Bodies in charge of RTD policy:

Traditionally both the Ministry of Higher Education and the Ministry of Industry were in charge of RTD. Very recently, a Minister of State for Technology Transfer and Technological Development (Professor Ihssan Shureiteh) has been put in charge of co-ordinating efforts for RTD especially in the field of ICTs.

3.6 Organisations in charge of the promotion of the IS:

The Syrian Computer Society remains the main promoter of the IS and has been selected by the European Commission as a focal point for EUMEDIS.

Other organisations or establishments play a key role in the promotion of Is, such as:

• Syrian Telecommunications Establishment (STE) through building the needed infrastructure for communications and the Internet.
• Syrian Universities, through providing courses on use of computers to help student from different disciplines to make the best of computers. Syrian universities established this year, Computer Science faculties in each of the four Syrian universities.
• Higher Institute for Applied Sciences and Technology (HIAST), through courses and training offered in ICT, seminars and meeting organised in different related aspects of IT, and projects carried out for different Syrian establishments.
• The Arab School of Science and technology (ASST), by organising workshops in scientific fields, especially in ICT.
• The National Information Centre (NICE), through its IT oriented magazines and workshops addressing information in general and more particularly, information through electronic media.