CMA CGM secures another development in Syria: Syria’s General Authority for Land and Sea Ports has inked a strategic MoU with French maritime giant CMA CGM to develop and operate dry ports in both the Syrian-Jordanian Joint Freezone and the freezone in Adra, Syrian public news agency Sana reported last week. No investment ticket or timeline have been disclosed.

The details: The agreement reportedly grants CMA CGM 300k sqm to develop in the Adra Free Zone in rural Damascus, whereupon it will provide services including customs clearance, warehousing, and multimodal transport, Syrian news daily Shaam reported last week. No further details were made public.

REFRESHER- Investor appetite is up: CMA CGM inked a USD 230 mn agreement with Syria’s Land and Sea Ports Authority to develop and operate a container terminal at Latakia Port earlier in May. This came after a total of 88 investment and operational contracts were reportedly inked for the Syrian-Jordanian Joint Freezone in 2025 as of last month, following its resumption of operations in January 2025.

Syrian-Jordanian economic teamwork: The Jordanian and Syrian Chambers of Commerce agreed this week to work on a roadmap to chart future joint investments, with a focus on key sectors, including transport, shipping, trade, agriculture, food, and construction. Jordan’s exports to Syria increased by 520% y-o-y in January 2025 to JOD 18.6 mn (USD 26.2 mn, while its imports from Syria decreased by 9% y-o-y to JOD 4.7 mn.

REMEMBER- Syria is seeing sanctions lifted: Both the US and the EU issued sweeping sanctions relief for Syria this week as part of a wider global push to remove sanctions on the country. This is slated to include a waiver for the Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act and unlock investment in Syria after 14 years of war and sanctions.

You can know more about what the recent lifting of sanctions means for investors from our conversation with Mark Nakhla, Chief Research Officer of Kharon, a US-based data and technology firm that advises businesses on a range of sanctions and compliance risks.

AND- The Syrian gov’t is set to sign today an agreement with four companies to upgrade its electrical grid capacity by 5 GW, Reuters reports. The move — which would double the nation’s power supply — will see Qatar's UCC Holding lead the development in partnership with Turkey’s Kalyon GES Enerji Yatirimlari, Cengiz Enerji, and the US’ Power International USA.

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