The SRTF Director-General, Mr. Hani Khabbaz Interviewed by the German Business Weekly Wirtschaftswoche

Gaziantep – Wednesday, 4 December 2015 – Mr. Hani Khabbaz, Director-General of the SRTF Management Unit (MU) was interviewed by the German business weekly magazine, Wirtschaftswoche, in its edition of 27 November 2015, on the fund’s assistance to the conflict-affected people inside Syria.

In the interview, Mr. Khabbaz illustrated the activities and projects undertaken by the SRTF to alleviate the suffering of the Syrian people in areas held by the Syrian moderate opposition. He stated that the SRTF is "the first and only recovery trust fund that works inside a country during an active conflict, focusing on essential services and early recovery in the priority sectors of water, electricity, healthcare, education, food security, and waste management.”

Mr. Khabbaz said: "We are ready and willing to scale up our recovery work when the time is right. But, large-scale reconstruction of Syria cannot start until the war is over and many critical issues, like security and access just to name a few, have been addressed.”

He added: "we want to ensure that Syrians will return home once the conflict is over to rebuild the country with their own hands. Many of them have left to Europe and other places. When they've been two years in Germany, they'll have learned the language and perhaps found work.  We must offer them incentives to come home in order to help rebuild their country.”

Mr. Khabbaz concluded saying: “We need the international community to help support Syria‘s reconstruction so that everybody can see that there is a commitment to rebuild the country."

To read the complete interview in German visit:

http://www.wiwo.de/politik/ausland/fluechtlingspolitik-der-grosse-selbstbetrug/12641056.html

For further information on SRTF see:

http://www.srtfund.org

Media outlets may contact:

communications@srtfund.org