Rebuilding Syria may cost $180 billion World Bank President

[Anthea]

Rebuilding Syria may cost $180 billion: World Bank President

World Bank President Jim Yong Kim on Thursday said it may cost as much as $180 billion to rebuild Syria, where a raging civil war has been taking place over the past five years.

According to Kim, who spoke to a press conference at the start of the International Monetary Fund-World Bank spring meetings, once hostilities end in Syria, many Syrian refugees are unlikely to return unless health clinics, schools and other crucial infrastructure are rebuilt in the country.

He stressed that the range of costs of rebuilding Syria could reach $150 billion to $180 billion.

Amid the mounting oil prices, the World Bank President expressed concerns about who would donate for rebuilding the basic infrastructure in Syria.

“I am worried that there will not be the kind of grant-based aid that we might have seen at the time of $100-a-barrel oil,” Kim said.

“The usual strong supporters of the region, the oil-producing countries, are themselves facing fiscal deficits.”

http://aranews.net/2016/04/rebuilding-s ... president/