Syria is a nation trying to move to the next level in participating in the global IT market. However, significant advancements must be made in order to achieve recognition as a serious contender in the export market or as a desirable location for investment. Syria is still quite distant from the global market at this time. Because of the lack of awareness of the country and its standing in the IT sector. Because the Syrian infrastructure is still lagging behind all its neighbors (Turkey, Jordan, Lebanon and Israel) there is a big question whether the country could best meet requirement of a global firm before all these firms are settled in the neighboring countries.

Strengths:

Syria possess several strong points which could play major rules in driving foreign investors to drive their Information Technology sector

	Syria location in between Europe, Africa and Asia serves an operations base for the world markets.
	The education system in general and the IT education system specifically are improving rapidly and expected to supply the economy with educated talented workforce.
	The government is currently trying to open the Syrian economy more to foreign funding and companies, and the country witnessing a boom in oil production.
	About 60% of the Syrian population fall in the 15-64 years bracket.
	Cheap local workforce.

Weaknesses:

	Although Syria is trying to have a more open economy toward the west, the Information  Telecommunication sector is still strictly controlled by the government but for two private mobile phone providers, which are both owned by top governmental related people
	Low revenue and tight budget prevent the government from making a serious investment commitment on its own. Foreign investment can replace this highly needed investment, but many foreign investors tend to fear the Syrian's lack in certain elements of basic infrastructure and stay way.
	Many laws regarding Information Technology have been passed, but they are not enforced. and some of them lack the strict penalties for non-compliance.
	Poor infrastructure making the penetration rate for Internet access extremely low.
	The major payment system in Syria is Cash, thus Syria lacks the suitable payment system to conduct a transaction over the Internet.
	Since a huge numbers of the information technology first are American. In my opinion, the American government embargo on Syria is one of the main obstacle facing the Syrian information technology sector.

Conclusion:

Syria is on the right track toward a recognizable Information Technology industry, but they are still in the planning stage. One advantage the Syrian has is that the neighbor countries foot steps that they can follow, but in order for them to do so the Syrian government has a lot of tough, hard decisions (in their measurements) to make and laws to change.