DAMASCUS, Oct. 3 (Xinhua) -- Syria is preparing for post-war rebuilding as the counter-terrorism battle is approaching an end, Syrian Minister of Public Works and Housing, Hussein Arnous, told Xinhua.
The minister's remarks came as the Syrian government has opened the Rebuild Syria Fair on Tuesday evening with the aim of promoting the reconstruction process in Syria as the next stage.
The Rebuild Syria comes a month after the government held the Damascus international trade fair with the same message to foreign and local companies to invest in Syria to support the reconstruction.
In his remarks to Xinhua, Arnous said holding several fairs in the country indicates the recovery of the economic and security situation in Syria.
"We want to say that Syria has almost finished countering terrorism and is now preparing for the reconstruction process and thus these fairs are means to promote products and plans for the reconstruction process," the minister said.
A total of 270 companies from 29 countries, including Western ones, took part in the five-day fair.
Arnous said that the increased participants in the fair indicates the importance of such venues to help contractors and people interested in public and private sectors find their needs in local and foreign markets.
At the Iranian pavilion, Iranian ambassador Javad Turk-Abadi told reporters that his country's participation in the expos is a sign that Iran wants to stand by the Syrian side in the reconstruction.
"The concept of our participation in the fair is out of our desire to say that we want to be by the side of our Syrian brothers in the reconstruction process," the ambassador said.
Lebanese companies have also taken part in the fair, hoping to make some investment in the country, which is the threshold of beginning the reconstruction process.
Jean Pierre, a representative of a contracting and cladding company, said he looked forward to the prospects of the reconstruction in Syria.
"The future of reconstruction in Syria is something huge ... We will participate to the best of our abilities as our company deals in the projects of contracting and cladding of exteriors," he said.
Still, Pierre said that there is still some ambiguity in terms of the customs and money transitions, hoping that when the country opens up in the future, there will be new and clearer laws.
The ambiguity for the traders and businessmen comes from the way the government would deal with foreign investments due to the Western sanctions on Syria, which are considered as the main hurdle in the face of foreign businesses in the country.
As for the Chinese companies, Girvan, the regional director of the Truemax Group Limited, told Xinhua that his company is taking part in the fair promoting its heavy equipment.
"We want to support the rebuilding of Syria and for my company, we are specialized in the manufacturing of heavy equipment like crushers and concrete machines, especially for building construction. So I am sure we can do very good business in the future," he said.
The Syrian government has started promoting the reconstruction process as the Syrian army has restored 90 percent of the country after more than seven years of war.
In an interview aired Tuesday on the pan-Arab al-Mayadeen TV, Walid al-Muallem, the Syrian foreign minister, called on Syrian refugees abroad to return to the country and take part in the reconstruction process.
He said that the last chapter of the war on terrorism will be through clearing off Idlib province in northwestern Syria from the ultra-radical rebel groups.
The United Nations has recently announced that the seven-year war in Syria implied a destruction of nearly 400 billion U.S. dollars, which means that companies from around the world will show up to do business in Syria.
According to estimates published by the World Bank in late 2017, the long-standing war in Syria has ravaged its infrastructure and caused losses to its economy of 226 billion dollars.
