Meeting in Aleppo 10/3/2009

the syrian-canadian Businessmen Association meeting minutes

Session number:24
Workshop            :1
Date                      :Tuesday 10/3/2009
Time                     :1:00 PM
Place                    : Zummorod Restaurant-Aleppo, Syria

Attendants:

1- Mr. Muhammad Daaboul, the President of the Syrian-Canadian Businessmen Association.
2- Mr. Bassam Khoja, Vice President of the Syrian-Canadian Businessmen Association.
3- Mr. Karim Maasarani, Secretary of the Syrian-Canadian Businessmen Association.
4- Mr. Muhammad Abulhuda Lahham, Fouding member of the Syrian-Canadian Businessmen Association.
5- Mr.Diaa Ismail, Active member of the Syrian-Canadian Businessmen Associatoin.
6- Mr. Hassan Daaboul, Active member of the Syrian-Canadian Businessmen Association.
7- Mr. Safwan Arafeh, Active member of the Syrian-Canadian Businessmen Association.
8- Mr. Farouk Joud, Active member of the Syrian-Canadian Businessmen Associaiton.
9- Mr. Wael Saadawi, Active member of the Syrian-Canadian Businessmen Association.
10- Mr. Ammar Katranji, Active member of the Syrian-Canadian Businessmen Association.
11- Mr. Ghassan Nahass, Active member of the Syrian-Canadian Businessmen Association.
12- Mr. Hisham Ismail, Active member of the Syrian-Canadian Businessmen Association.
13- Mr. Ammar Krayem, Active member of the Syrian-Canadian Businessmen Association.

The Guests:
14- Mr. Ahmad Maasarani.
15- Mr. zouheer Al-taghloubi.
16- Mr. Dr. Ahmad Mansour.
17- Mr. Ghafar Sharbaji.

The Absentess:
1- Mr. Amr Baalbaki, the Treasurer of the Syrian-Canadian Businessmen Association.
2- Mr. Nidal  Bitar, Founding member of the Syrian-Canadian Businessmen Association.

Work shop Agenda Discussion:

Canada and the Syrian Educational Investment

Mr. Karim Maasarani, the Secretary of the Association and Mr. Muhammad Daaboul, the President of the Association started the workshop with welcoming all members.

 The First Idea of the Project:

It was raised by Mr. Karim Maasarani, the Secretary of the Association.

He pointed out the importance of the medical industry in Syria and the permanen need to improve it.

He added that Canada is considerd as a pioneer state in this domain. Also, Canadian universities are evaluated as the perfect in this project.

Mr. Maasarani asserted the starting of these scientific actvities is a cornerstone for a contiuous outburs of the commercial scientific projects aiming of achieving the Association purposes mentioned in the internal system.

The Second Idea:

It was raised by Mr. Safwan Arafeh who pointed out the following:

* Preparing an actual research on the work force and the needs of the market through a cooperation with the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs, school and unversities.

* Power capcities.

* Best selecting of students.

* Coordinating educational and vocational seminars.

* Vocational education and orientation.

* Preparing a guide to vocational and scientific specialization available in the market.

* The role of human resources and how to benefit from the Canadian expertise.

 The Third Idea:

It was raised bu Mr. Hassan Daaboul who pointed out some ideas and suggestions as follows:

* Enhancing the mutual visits between Syrian and Canadian companies.

* Investment promotion and magnatizing the Canadian businessmen.

* Studying the custom fees and decreasing it.

* Studying the academic and educational field beween Syria and Canada.

* Studying the situation of the private and public universities.

* Making use of the Canadian Pensioners (e.g. physicians and university professors.)

* Granting scholarships and confirmed by contracts jobs for student and specialists in ( IT ) due to its effective role in all fields.

* Activating the Association Website and providing it with all necessary activities and performances directly and continuously.

* Setting a data base for businessmen.

* Activating investments and providing members of the Syrian-Canadian Businessmen Association with commercial laws regarding exportation and import of goods.

* communicating concerned ministries to decrease the custom fees.

* Supporting the educational field with the Canadian expertises and experieces in the high education domain and holding confereces and seminars.

* Wider spreading of the Association through magnetizing businessmen from all Syrian provinces.

* Assigning some members to achieve different tasks to continue implementation of the suggestions.

Concerning the Association downside they are the following:

* Lack of publicity of the Associaton.

* Miscommunication among members of the Association.

For setting right these negative aspects, the following steps are suggests:

* Requesting an affective participation through proposing ideas and making suggestions not only by the founders or the Board of Directors but also by  all members of the Association.

*Suggesting raising the membership annual subscription.

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At the end of suggesting these ideas, the members pointed out the necssary of inducing and encouraging the Canadian businessmen to increase their investments in Syria and paying visits to it.

The Canadian consul, Mr. Hisham Ismail commented as follows:

* Slackness of delegating Canadian businessmen.

* Enhancing the level of commercial exchange between both countries.

* Reaching educational agreements between Syrian and Canadian universities.

* Activating better relations with the Canadian Embassy and Consulate.

In addition, Mr. Hisham Ismail confirmed the necessity of inviting Canadian businessmen delegation form different specialties and attaching significance to all details and requirements.

The Italian Consul, Mr. Farouk Joud added the following:

* Supporting the points suggested by Mr. Hassan Daaboul except the custom fees decreasing.

* Enhancing the Asssociation publicity through the press, television and internet.

* The need to add more new members, especially a group of brilliant graduated youth.

*The necessity of improving the Association Website.

Mr. Muhammad Daaboul, the President of the Board of Directors, explained the adopted steps to build a local school, language centre and getting the approval of the Ministry of Education.

Also, he expressed his wish to repeat his visit to Canada because his last visit resulted in many benefits that were granted by Canadian ministries.e.g. Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Agriculture. Above all the great interest that Syrian Embassy was granted to the Syrian delegation.

Most of the members mentioned the difficulties and the obstacles that they face when they deal with the official authorities and the Syrian Ministries.

Mr. Karim Maasarani explained that the Asssociation difficulties have extraordinary feature, asking all the members to understand the situation.

Mr. Hassan Daaboul, the Active member of hte Association, mentioned the necessity of training the human resources with its different specialties.

Mr. Bassam Khoja, the Vice President of Association, assured the necessity of coordinating with Labor Ministry in order to be aware of the facilities and the private laws to let any Association project keep on doing.

Mr. Wael Alsaadi called for organizing a specialized and thorough statistics of the local markets.

Dr. Ahmad Mansour expressed his desire to presenting objective and scientific overall view about the Association projects, especially, the scholarships offered for higher studies.

Mr. Ahmad Mansour asserted his aptitude to guide the Association scientifically in case of need "Free charge".

Also, he has been appointed as a volunteer  consultant of granting scholarships and Master degree affairs.

Voting:

There was a unanimous vote on delegating students that are granted scholarships for higher studies.

Finally, there was a request to hold a meeting later in order to put the work mechanism for the proposed points and another wordshop on a reduced scale fromed from:

* Mr. Karim Maasarani, the Association Secretary.

* Mr. Safwan Arafeh, the Active member of Association.

* Mr. Hassan Daaboul, the Active member of Associaltion. 

So, there was a request to prepare a report for the Board Directors regarding this mechanism to discuss it in the decided meeting that will be held in lattakia later according to the convocation of Mr. Farouk Joud.

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