[Today’s Prayer] Syria, which ousted its dictator, returns to international payment network after 14 years

Syria, which had been isolated from the international community due to its long dictatorship and civil war, will be connected to the international payment system SWIFT (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication) for the first time in 14 years.

According to the British daily Financial Times (FT) on the 9th (local time), Abdulkader Husrie, governor of the Central Bank of Syria, said in an interview with the FT that "Syria will be fully reconnected to the SWIFT international payment network within a few weeks."

He said Syria would reform its financial sector, adding that a return to SWIFT would "help facilitate foreign trade, reduce import costs, boost exports, bring much-needed foreign currency back into the country, strengthen anti-money laundering efforts and reduce reliance on informal financial networks for cross-border trade."

"We now plan to ensure that all foreign trade is conducted through the official banking sector," he said, emphasizing that this will eradicate the role of money changers who used to charge a commission of 40 cents per dollar for dollars coming into Syria.

The return of SWIFT to the payment network is seen as a major milestone in the economic liberalization reforms being pursued by the Syrian interim government.

Syria has been isolated from global markets since President Bashar al-Assad violently suppressed a popular uprising in 2011, sparking a civil war.

After a long civil war, rebels led by the Islamist militant group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) ousted the dictatorial regime of Assad in December last year, and Ahmed al-Shara, a former head of HTS, became interim president.

The international community was concerned that an armed group lacking experience in running a country would be able to rebuild Syria, but as soon as the new government took power, it introduced measures to promote a free-market economy and expanded its exchanges with the international community.

Saudi Arabia and Qatar last month jointly repaid a $15.5 million World Bank loan that Syria owed to help rebuild the country.

Source : YNA News

“I, the Lord, have called you in righteousness; I will take hold of your hand. I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the peopleand a light for the Gentiles, to open eyes that are blind, to free captives from prison and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness. (Isaiah 42:6-7)

Heavenly Father, we see that after 14 years of dictatorship and civil war, Syria, isolated from the international community, is expected to be connected to Swift, the international payment system, in a matter of weeks, allowing for economic liberalization reforms that will expand trade and investment.

We praise God for doing a new thing in Syria, a country that has been devastated by years of dictatorship and civil war.

Through this work, we pray that You will restore Syria's shattered economy and help the souls of Syrians to find jobs so that they can live stable lives and not go hungry.

May all that the transitional government now in power in Syria do be according to your will, so that only your will may be done among the Syrian people.

And may the Syrian church that Jesus left behind minister to the scattered Syrian refugees who are returning to their homeland, remembering God's covenant with this people, with the heart of a God who will not give up on Syria.

So that Syrian souls who seemed to have been abandoned by the world may now find themselves under your protection and in your hands.

Raise up the Syrian people to be a blessing among the nations, to be a holy army that holds on to the covenant of God, who has called them to be a light to the Gentiles, to go to all nations, to open the eyes of the blind, to bring out the captives from the dungeons, and to bring those who sit in darkness out of their cells!