00:00After years of war, isolation and sanctions, the Assad era is over.
00:07Syria is trying to re-engage with the world.
00:11Sanctions are easing and the new government is promising change.
00:15Among the biggest ambitions, a digital future.
00:18We want the world, especially the next generation,
00:22to see us as a driver of growth, connection and innovation.
00:27Now, a year after the fall of Assad, digital still comes with daily obstacles.
00:33Power cuts, poor connectivity and a cash-based economy.
00:38Syria has been operating the past 14 years in a bubble.
00:42So we were completely disconnected from everything outside.
00:46And people are extremely creative and there's a unique problem-solving approach here.
00:53Bahila Hijazi is one of the people who returned to Syria from Germany to establish her start-up, Behti Betak.
01:01It's building what looks like a Syrian Airbnb, offering short stays in homes, apartments, villas and hotels.
01:08But for a project like this, how can payments be handled?
01:12What we did in Behti Betak is that we had an external entity outside.
01:18We gathered the money outside of Syria.
01:22So we have like a combination of cash online and then we developed our own APIs as well.
01:31For Planolyze, an AI tool designed to help entrepreneurs plan projects for the Syrian market,
01:37the internet is a big challenge.
01:40What I do is I use 4G.
01:43I don't use ADSL, which is locally, at home.
01:46So that's what I do actually.
01:48I don't think that all entrepreneurs have this access to the internet.
01:54Unofficial estimates suggest Syria is still largely offline,
01:58with almost two-thirds of the population not connected.
02:01And even for those who are, the internet can be painfully slow.
02:05According to the Minister of Communications and Information Technology,
02:09Syria ranks 227th out of 229 countries in broadband connectivity.
02:15We launched the MVP of the app.
02:18I don't remember the number exactly, but like 40% of the reports of the studies that were provided
02:25weren't able to finish analyzing because of the internet.
02:28It wasn't fast enough to analyze the data and load.
02:32And plus one, the electricity cuts off, so the internet cuts off.
02:36In a recent statement, the minister announced the first phase of Ugarit 2,
02:41a project linked to an undersea cable route via Cyprus
02:44that will increase Syria's international internet capacity.
02:48While the government talks infrastructure,
02:50startups make do with whatever works.
02:53Syria's tech ecosystem didn't grow like other countries.
02:59B-Order is one of the few startups that managed to scale under Assad's regime,
03:04delivering groceries and meals in Damascus and beyond.
03:09The co-founder told us that the Assad government was always harassing the business,
03:13trying to get a share.
03:15We were able somehow to cover our, let's call it, numbers and operations
03:21just to protect ourselves from them.
03:23So they used to come and say,
03:24OK, we are following the number of the bags,
03:27and now you have around 500 drivers.
03:30We know it from, like we used to number the bags by series 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.
03:35So we need to change this to a different coding,
03:38so they don't get how much orders we have.
03:42Now the big question is money.
03:44With sanctions easing, foreign investment can return
03:47and startups can finally scale beyond survival mode.
03:52Countries like Saudi Arabia and Qatar are already pledging
03:55millions of dollars in investments for Syria.
03:58So in my point of view,
03:59investors coming and people coming to Syria will nourish,
04:04planilize and it will help more people use planilize
04:09and internet will get better.
04:11The economy will get the mindset.
04:13Even them coming will help people understand,
04:16oh, OK, so this is how they think outside.
04:21But foreign investment doesn't automatically mean scale.
04:24There's the competition question.
04:26What happens if Syria opens to companies like Uber,
04:29Airbnb or regional delivery giants?
04:32Well, it's challenging for us having an open market.
04:35We never operated in this for the past 70 years.
04:38But yet for us, I see the local sort of,
04:42they do understand the challenges, local challenges.
04:44So I think if you want to have a market, let's call it,
04:48us and the international investor competition need to cooperate together.
04:53So Syria's tech industry is entering a new phase.
04:57It's less about whether startups can exist
04:59and more about whether they can grow.
05:02Foreign money could speed up rebuilding
05:04and bring more Syrians online.
05:06For now, the country's startups will build with what they have.
05:10But this time, they're betting that the system will finally catch up.
05:14We'll finally catch up.
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