Syria endures severe cash crunch

Syria is grappling with a deepening cash shortage, with withdrawal limits, stalled electronic payments and malfunctioning banking services disrupting people’s daily lives.

In the capital Damascus, long queues at ATMs have become routine, as many residents make multiple trips across the city to withdraw even small amounts of money.

“We sometimes have to travel from far away and come several times. And as you can see, there’s always a long queue in front of the ATMs. This happens for several reasons. Sometimes the network is disrupted, sometimes the power goes out, and on top of that every citizen is allowed to withdraw only three times a day,” said a resident named Mahmoud Ali.

Experts say the crisis reflects the combined impact of years of conflict, sanctions and a tightening monetary policy that has pushed liquidity to the breaking point.

“In reality, the central bank has frozen liquidity under the assumption that this would stabilize the Syrian pound. This logic simply doesn’t hold. If you have one billion Syrian pounds in your bank account but can only withdraw 200,000 per week, the existing economic system is being destroyed. All of these factors together are collapsing the Syrian economy and further destabilizing the market,” said economic analyst Ammar Youssef.

Economists warn that unless the cash supply is restored and the digital payment system is strengthened, the liquidity crunch could spill over into broader financial and social sectors, deepening the strain on an already weakened economy.

China and ASEAN countries vowed to deepen legal and governance cooperation as they confront shared regional and global challenges, according to participants at the seventh China-ASEAN Legal Cooperation Forum in the southwestern city of Chongqing.

The three-day forum, which concluded on Saturday, brought together more than 140 legal experts and practitioners from China, ASEAN member states and international organizations.

Discussions focused on trade facilitation, intellectual property protection, law enforcement collaboration and judicial cooperation, with the aim of advancing a China-ASEAN community with a shared future.

“At the moment, most of the countries, not just Cambodia, but many other countries in the region, are the victims of transnational crime, particularly human trafficking, drug smuggling, financial fraud, and online scams. So the best way to address the problem is to work together hand in hand, strengthen legal cooperation in order to combat those [crimes], because this is not the issue of one particular state, but they are issues of the region, issues of the globe,” said Chin Malin, vice president of Cambodia’s Legislative and Judicial Commission.

Delegates at the forum pledged to cultivate legal talent in China and ASEAN countries, strengthen cooperation between universities and research institutions, and provide intellectual support for legal and governance cooperation.

“Southwest University of Political Science and Law has been cultivating Chinese students proficient in ASEAN languages and laws, while also providing doctoral education for young talents from ASEAN’s judicial practice institutions and institutions of higher education. To date, it has trained more than 90 doctoral students, among whom 19 are officials at or above the deputy minister level,” said Lin Wei, president of Southwest University of Political Science and Law.

“We have many other [colleagues], not just only me. And in Ministry of Justice, we have four or five high-rank officials [who already] completed PhD programs in Chongqing, in SWUPL, the Southwest University of Political Science and Law. With this good cooperation, every year we send our official to join the trainings, short-term, long-term and the key program study, particularly PhD Program. So this cooperation also help promote the capacity-building programs of our officials, and that also help promote the legal and judicial reform in Cambodia through human resources development,” said Chin Malin.

Delegates said their countries would continue to uphold the principles of mutual respect, mutual benefit and win-win cooperation, and work together to build a stable and prosperous region under the rule of law.