First plan (1960-1965) In September 1958, the UAR government prepared a ten-year plan for Syria, but it was replaced by a more planned, so-called Five-Year Industrialization Plan. As part of the plan, so-called Rural Development Centers (or RDC) were created. Their goal was to develop rural areas socially and economically. RDC's were created by the Egyptians based on their experience of interacting with similar organizations. However, Syria and Egypt had significant differences in such parameters as population density, standard of living, social structure, and so on - which meant that the approach had to be different. The first five-year plan, announced in July 1960, set a number of goals and investment amounts for different sectors of the economy - the budget for the development of irrigation was to be around 780 million
Syrian pounds, agriculture - 95 million, industrial and energy sector - 186 million, transport and communications - 387 million, education and health - 153 million, housing - 101 million, and 18 million for other sectors. The plan envisaged doubling the gross output of goods and services, i.e., an annual growth rate of 7.2 percent, by 1970 within the framework of a ten-year program consisting of two five-year plans, During the second plan, the government invested about 136 million
Syrian pounds in the agricultural sector, which was not enough. The Second Five-Year Plan also focused on expanding universities in
Aleppo and
Damascus. Jadid became close to communist groups and adopted a Marxist program of economic development and political direction, as well as
Marxist atheism - his regime carried out active propaganda attacks against
religion. His aggressive policies alienated all sections of the country's population: it did not contribute to development, but only led to decline. Due to such a sharp change in policy towards a more radical direction, some documents indicate 1966 as the beginning of the second five-year plan. Almost immediately after coming to power, the Jadid regime faced intense trade union pressure over low wages and poor working conditions, demanding improvements to both. In response, the profit-sharing scheme was changed to a more favorable one, and a program was implemented to establish a network of kindergartens for the children of working mothers. Some of the main goals set by the plan were: completion of the
Euphrates Dam by 1975; improvement of irrigation methods; increase in labor productivity through better training and the introduction of more modern technology; increase in land productivity; increase the number of agricultural and service cooperatives from 1,600 to 4,500; develop scientific research in the field of agriculture.), the government officially announced the start of
infiraj - a policy aimed at liberalizing the economy to attract foreign capital., 1972. It was done one year later. |231x231px However, relative liberalization did not reduce the level of government intervention in economic planning, but only made it easier to obtain and work with investments. Moreover, the overwhelming majority of third plan investments went to the public sector rather than the private sector: 79.2 percent and 20.8 percent respectively. the plan was characterized by comparative deregulation of the economy by the state. The government had to launch a major anti-
corruption crackdown to reduce losses caused by ineffective management. The plan also led to the gradual revival of the
bourgeoisie, crushed under Salah Jadid, which finally emerged in the 1990s and became known as the "New Class" (
al-tabaqa al-jadida).
Fourth plan (1976-1980) Despite the payment surplus during the Third Plan, by the beginning of the Fourth Five-Year Plan the deficit was becoming noticeable: the trade balance continued to deteriorate, and imports began to grow faster than exports. The annual deficit of economic resources during the Fourth Five-Year Plan period increased to 13-18 percent, although in the previous one it was only 8 percent.
Fifth plan (1981-1985) Building on the failures and setbacks of the Fourth Five-Year Plan, the Fifth set less ambitious development goals. As a result of the
Fifth Five-Year Plan policy, government agencies received significantly broader powers in the area of marketing agricultural products, setting priorities, and introducing more sophisticated methods of agricultural production. The investment scheme and its sectoral distribution were almost no different from the fifth five-year plan. The plan produced even worse economic results than the previous one, and achieved almost none of his goals.
Seventh plan (1991-1995) The Seventh Plan finally gave the highest priority to the development of the agricultural sector of the economy, declaring the achievement of self-sufficiency in most agricultural products as the most important goal, therefore, during this period there was an increase in prices for the corresponding products. The plan was never completed and did not achieve most of its goals, but it marked the end of centralized economic control in Syria. This plan also set a new goal (which was adopted by the subsequent one) - the conservation of
biodiversity (including the protection of forests).
Ninth plan (2001-2005) In 2000,
Hafez al-Assad died of health complications, and his son,
Bashar al-Assad, became
president in his stead after
symbolic elections. He continued his father's reform agenda of the 1990s and was particularly determined to implement it. Young Assad sought to frame his leadership around modernizing and opening the economy. He emphasized, in particular, "the need to modernize the regulatory environment and the industrial base, activate and encourage the private sector, remove bureaucratic obstacles to investment, increase job opportunities, qualify cadres, improve education and expand information technology." The Ninth Five-Year Plan was adopted a year later, in 2001. Annual GDP growth was planned at 3 percent, and the share of investment was to increase from 18.2 percent in 2000 to 27 percent in 2005. The public administration system and state-owned enterprises were to be reformed, but the government was still opposed
privatization. Despite the push for liberal and pro-
capitalist reforms, the state was still the dominant sector in the country's economy - only 30 percent of the economy was private. The investment was to amount to 184 billion Syrian pounds (14 percent higher than the previous plan) or 3.5 billion US dollars. Investments were primarily planned to be directed towards the development of transport, communications, water supply and energy. The plan was expected to create a more efficient model of a social market economy. However, that same year, the
Syrian Revolution broke out, followed by a
full-scale civil war, and therefore the Bashar al-Assad regime no longer attempted to implement this and the new five-year plans, concentrating all its resources on winning the war. == Transition to three-year plans ==