Baladna has secured unanimous approval from its board of directors to proceed forward with an “integrated industrial project” in Syria worth more than QAR 911 million (about $250 million), according to a regulatory filing in the Qatar Stock Exchange.The Qatari food and dairy producer announced that the venture was given the green light, alongside setting up a subsidiary in Egypt, during the review of ongoing and future in its board meeting held on Monday.The company will set-up “an integrated industrial project comprising a dairy plant, a juice processing plant, a plastic packaging manufacturing facility, and an advanced water treatment facility”, according to the statement posted on QSE on Thursday.Similarly, the approval to establish a subsidiary in Egypt will be aimed to providing back-support services as well as to strengthen its operational capabilities across the Middle East and North African markets, as per a report in Forbes Middle East.The dairy and beverage manufacturer had also signed an agreement worth about QAR 13 billion (about $3.1 billion) to set up an integrated powdered milk production plant in southern Algeria, through Baladna Algeria.Baladna becomes the latest Qatari firm — both public and private — to extend its investment in Syria after the fall of Bashar Al-Assad’s regime in December. Investments and cooperation in fields of media broadcasting, public services, satellite services, aviation and energy have materialised between entities of the two countries.A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between Syrian Ministry of Information and Qatari private firm Al Maha International Company to set up the country’s largest media project, Damascus Gate, on June 30.In May, Qatar’s UCC Holding-led international consortium had signed an agreement with the Syrian government to develop major power generation projects with a foreign investment valued at about QAR 25.5 billion (about $7 billion).Qatar, with Saudi Arabia, had previously agreed to jointly fund salaries for public sector employees in Syria for three months, a month after they announced their commitment to settle Syria’s outstanding arrears of $15 million (around QAR 55 million) to the World Bank.Foreign investments have continue to come in Syria, after U.S. President Donald Trump lifted the sanctions imposed on the country during his latest visit to the Middle East in May. (ICE Doha)

Fonte notizia: DOHA NEWS