Saudi Fund Finances Syria's Power, Water and Housing Projects

Syria and Saudi Arabia signed agreements and memoranda of understanding during President Ahmed al-Sharaa's visit to Riyadh on Wednesday, according to SANA. The agreements focus on service and development sectors and on rehabilitating basic infrastructure across several Syrian governorates.

Saudi Fund for Development Projects

According to the Ministry of Finance on its Telegram channel, Saudi Fund for Development projects are the core of the package and include the first Saudi development financing directed straight to the Syrian state. The projects include:

• Rehabilitation of the Aleppo station, supporting the electricity sector.
• Supply and installation of 300,000 smart water meters in Damascus and Idlib.
• Construction and rehabilitation of 25 civil defence centres in several governorates.
• Rehabilitation of damaged hospitals and health centres.
• Rehabilitation of ten thousand damaged housing units as a first phase.

Digital Transformation and Sector Cooperation

The package includes a digital transformation strategy with an implementation roadmap and an office to manage the process. It also covers memoranda in industry, agriculture and the environment:

• Industry: joint working teams for five years, renewing automatically.
• Agriculture: periodic meetings every six months.
• Environment: cooperation for five years, renewable.

The agreements also provide for Syria's official participation in Expo 2030 Riyadh through a contract giving it exhibition space at no charge, along with support through the organising company's programmes.

Earlier Milestones

President al-Sharaa's visit to Saudi Arabia in February 2025 was the first prominent milestone in relations. In April 2025, Saudi Arabia and Qatar announced they had settled Syria's arrears to the World Bank, about 15 million dollars, allowing the Bank to resume activities in Syria.

In July 2025, the Syrian-Saudi Investment Forum in Damascus produced 47 agreements and memoranda worth over six billion dollars, with more than 20 Saudi government bodies and about 100 companies taking part. In August 2025, an investment promotion and protection agreement was signed and the Saudi Ministry of Investment opened an office in Damascus, alongside an agreement and six memoranda covering electricity, petroleum and gas.

Projects in 2026

During 2026, cooperation widened to aviation, telecommunications, infrastructure, water and real estate development. Among the main projects is Silk Link, an investment of about one billion dollars for a fibre-optic network of roughly 4,500 kilometres, five data centres and marine landing stations.