Comparative advantage study, final technical report : Assistance for capacity building through enhancing operation of the National agricultural policy center, FAO projects GCP/SYR/006/ITA and TCP/SYR/2906 (A)

This report presents the outcome of a study carried out from September 2003 to May 2004 by the National Agricultural Policy Centre with the assistance of the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations under Projects GCP/SYR/006/ITA and TCP/SYR 2906(A) on the comparative advantages of selected commodity chains. The study assesses the impact of the structural changes, that are taking place in the Syrian economy since the early 90's, on the economic viability of these commodity chains. With the gradual shift from a centrally planned to a market driven economy, combined with an increasing opening to the world economy, and the corresponding increasing competition between local and foreign sources of supply for food supply, the capacity of the Syrian agriculture to remain competitive in a new policy environment is a crucial issue for policy formulation. Conversely, it is equally important for policy makers to identify commodity chains that can benefit from new market opportunities created by trade liberalization, and thus, durably increase their contribution to country's economic growth. The results presented in this report aim at assisting policy analysts in assessing policy options and substantiate priorities on a commodity basis with respect to the whole range of functions devoted to the agricultural sector, balancing between economic efficiency and social equity. The following Section 2 presents the method applied to measure the comparative advantages, the sources of information used and the process through which they were collected and analyzed. Section 3 presents the results obtained, while Section 4 addresses more specifically the policy implications of the study. (Résumé d'auteur)