The Cabinet discussed in its weekly session chaired by Prime Minister Imad Khamis on Tuesday the state of Syrian mass media and the government’s plans for developing it.

Information Minister Ramez Tourjman reviewed the Ministry’s plan for restructuring the media sector, developing its establishments, and improving the skill of workers in this field, with the Cabinet setting the main points that the Ministry’s plan must focus on, in addition to calling for reviewing the state of all Syrian mass media establishments.

The Cabinet approved a bill on exempting exported local products from consumer spending fees in order to allow Syrian products to compete in foreign markets, and discussed work being carried out to restore services and utilities to the neighborhoods of Aleppo city that have been liberated from terrorism.

Public Works and Housing Minister Hussein Arnous said that work on repairing Aleppo Airport is done along with the efforts to reactivate the train line from Aleppo to Jebrin, adding that 36 schools have also been repaired and that work is still ongoing to fix water lines and repairing electric power stations, noting that 3 wells have been dug in Aleppo city and work is underway to dig 24 more wells to provide drinking water.

He also said that maintenance teams have finished clearing the main roads connecting the Aleppo’s neighborhoods and side roads connected to them, and that 14 contracts have been drafted to clear rubble from the city and repair some buildings, with the overall percentage of implementation of projects in the city reaching 78.71% at a value of around SYP 1.7 billion adding that maintenance work is also being carried out in the industrial city.

In a step to curb the cutting, displacement, and uprooting of fruit trees without a license, the Cabinet approved a bill imposing fines on carrying out such acts, and it approved a grant to the Syrian Railroad Construction General Company amounting to SYP 216 million to pay wages for the first half of 2017.

The Cabinet also discussed steps being taken in various economic and services issues related to export, import, workers law, the Planning and International Cooperation Agency, the purchases law, company mergers, structural development, governmental investments, banking and finance, insurance, and loans