National Dialogue Kicks off Today on Provinces

Sessions of the national dialogue on the level of provinces will start on Monday and last till the 20th of the current month with the aim of achieving the widest popular participation in dialogue on the future vision for building Syria in a variety of political, economic and social fields and the comprehensive reform process under the leadership of President Bashar al-Assad. The preparatory dialogue committees are composed of representatives of parties, the government, impendent personalities and opposition while political, social and economic personalities representing the civil society will take part in those sessions. The national dialogue sessions will focus on three main axes: the political life and political reform, the current socio-economic situation and the local vision and requirements of provinces. The political axis will deal with the proposed issues for the dialogue sessions concerning the current and future political challenges, the means of maintaining national unity, confronting foreign conspiracies, the constitution, the basic principles and the laws of parties, elections and local administration as well as the situation of the media and its role in popular observation. The socio-economic axis will deal with employment policies and creating job opportunities, the development priorities in the agricultural, industrial, service, energy, financial and commercial sectors. The social service axis will deal with the issues of social subsidies and the unemployment support fund, health insurance and the educational policies. The preparatory committees will document the outcome of the dialogue sessions and submit them by the end of September to form the axes of the comprehensive national dialogue.