Start a Business in Syria 2026: Registration Steps and a 90-Day Plan

Starting a business in Syria in 2026 means registering with the Companies Directorate of the Ministry of Economy and Industry, now partly online, then sorting out the chamber, the tax file at the financial directorate and social insurance before your first sale. The rules moved quickly this year, so this guide sticks to what official sources state as of October 2026 and tells you where to confirm the rest.

Four changes matter most:

• Online company formation: the ministry launched an electronic company-formation service on 7 July 2026. The Companies Directorate says initial registration takes no more than five working days when the data and documents are complete and correct.
• A faster first register: a circular from the minister, announced on 13 July 2026, tells registry offices to grant a company's first commercial register as soon as the basic papers are in. It no longer waits on Ministry of Finance procedures or most activity licences, which you complete before the register's renewal.
• Investment rules: Investment Law No. 18 of 2021 was amended by Decree No. 114 of 2025, issued in July 2025. The Syrian Investment Authority says it allows full ownership of licensed projects and the transfer of profits abroad.
• A new pound: new notes with two zeros removed entered circulation on 1 January 2026, at 100 old pounds to 1 new pound, and the old notes stopped being legal tender on 31 July 2026. Every price list, contract and opening balance you carry over needs converting.

Demand is real. In October 2026 the Companies Directorate said it handles requests for 30 to 50 companies a day, some of which need missing documents completed or a partner to attend in person.

This guide is for two readers: Syrians coming home, or funding a business from abroad, and local founders formalising a shop, workshop or trading business. If you will run the company from abroad, read our guide to running a Syrian business remotely with Odoo alongside this one.

Licensing a company in Syria takes five steps: choose a legal form, define your activities and premises, activate your account, file online, then collect the commercial register. Confirm the current document list with the Companies Directorate or your governorate's commercial registry office before you start, because forms change.

• Step 1, the legal form. A sole trader takes an individual commercial register. For companies, the Companies Directorate lists limited liability companies, single-person LLCs, private and public joint-stock companies and holding companies. Of the first 65 applications on the online platform, by early August 2026, 43 were LLCs and 21 single-person LLCs. For a small venture, compare an individual register with those two forms, and ask a Syrian lawyer which fits your partners and your liability.
• Step 2, activities. A circular from March 2026 allows at most five unrelated activities on one register, coded to Syria's unified industrial classification. If you will import or export, write "import and export" in the company's purpose and name the goods, in up to five sectors.
• Step 3, premises. Capital companies may use a temporary headquarters for six months at formation. Lease, use or loan contracts for premises must run a full calendar year, with clear start and end dates.
• Step 4, the online file. You, or your legal agent, visit the Companies Directorate to activate an account for you and your partners. After that you submit data and documents through the platform and follow the review status online; the directorate says attendance is still needed at set stages, such as a fingerprint identity check or signing the application.
• Step 5, the register. Once the file is accepted, the company is registered, announced and granted its first commercial register.

Two limits catch returning families with mixed nationalities. If any owner or partner is not Syrian, the register cannot include representing foreign companies or commercial agencies. A foreigner's individual register cannot include importing, except for an investment project under the investment law, and even then imports must serve the project.

The fast-track register also has exceptions. Activities tied to the interior, defence and energy ministries, and sectors under a regulator such as banking, exchange, insurance and real estate development, still need their approvals first.

A commercial register does not mean you are ready to trade. Plan four more registrations in your first weeks, and a fifth if your project falls under the investment law.

• Chamber of commerce or industry. Traders and companies usually also join the local chamber, or the chamber of industry if they manufacture; confirm with the chamber in your governorate whether your activity requires membership and what it asks for. The Damascus Chamber of Commerce now checks members' social insurance records electronically when they join or renew, to confirm the worker count fits the membership grade and nothing is owed. Ask your chamber which grade applies.
• Tax. Open your tax file with the financial directorate (مديرية المالية) in your governorate and confirm its documents there. Income Tax Law No. 24 of 2003, as amended, still applies; in August 2026 the Finance Ministry said new tax laws would go to the People's Assembly, so check the rules in force when you file. The 2026 return deadline for companies and large taxpayers was 31 May, extended once to 30 June, after which late penalties applied. Importers now pay a tax advance on import invoices (2%, cut to 1% for industrial inputs and food from 1 June 2026), later deducted from their tax, and need a prior tax clearance, fully online since June 2026.
• Social insurance. The Social Insurance Law No. 92 of 1959 covers workers under the labour law whatever the size of the business, so register staff with the General Establishment for Social Insurance at their real wages from day one.
• Bank account. Open an account in the company's name and confirm the bank's document list and signatory rules. If you deal with US banks or suppliers: the US ended its Syria sanctions program on 1 July 2025, but name-based listings remain, so check partners on the OFAC Syria sanctions page.
• Investment licence. Investing in Syria in 2026 under Law No. 18 goes through the Syrian Investment Authority. As of October 2026 its official website lists the online licence application as coming soon, so apply at the authority or one of its governorate branches.

Set up your books in the first fortnight, before the first invoice, so every transaction lands in the right account and currency. Odoo has no Syrian fiscal localization, so you start from a generic chart of accounts and adapt it with your accountant.

A starter chart for a business that trades in dollars and new pounds:

• Separate cash boxes and bank accounts for USD and SYP, each with its own journal. In Odoo, a currency set on a journal or an account forces every entry there into that currency.
• A partners' current account for money the owners send from abroad, kept apart from capital.
• Prepaid income tax for the import tax advance, since it is deducted from your later tax.
• Social insurance payable, plus the exchange gain and loss accounts where Odoo posts exchange differences automatically.

Choose the main currency with your accountant. SYP ships inactive in Odoo, so activate it and enter rates by hand under a written rule. Convert carried-over balances at 100 to 1: an old-pound receivable of 25,000,000 opens at 250,000 new pounds. Our guide to multi-currency accounting in Syria goes deeper.

Then the operating basics, in this order:

• Invoicing: quotes and invoices in USD or SYP, chosen per document, in Odoo Community.
• Inventory: products, warehouses and reordering rules before your first purchase.
• Point of Sale: keeps selling offline and syncs orders when the connection returns.
• Payroll: an Enterprise app with no Syrian payroll localization in Odoo 20, so salary rules and insurance deductions are set up with your accountant.

For filing, Odoo's Documents app (Enterprise) puts accounting documents in a sub-folder per journal type and creates one per employee. Keep these in one company folder:

• Partners' IDs or passports and powers of attorney
• Articles of association and founding decision
• Commercial register and its renewal month
• Premises contract
• Chamber certificate and renewal receipt
• Tax file, returns, receipts and clearances
• Social insurance registration and monthly receipts
• Bank opening papers and signatory list
• Investment and activity licences
• Opening balances and the pound conversion note

Review this checklist every fortnight with your partners, accountant and lawyer. It assumes you start in November 2026.

Weeks 1–2: decide and file

• Agree the legal form, partners, capital and up to five activities
• Sign a one-year premises contract, or plan a six-month temporary headquarters for a company
• Activate your Companies Directorate account, in person or through your agent, and file online
• Choose the main currency and draft the chart of accounts
• Create the company folder and scan every document from day one

Weeks 3–6: register and open

• Collect the commercial register and note its renewal month
• Join your chamber if required, open the tax file and register staff with social insurance
• Open the company bank account
• Go live with invoicing and stock, plus the POS if you sell over the counter
• Enter opening balances converted to new pounds

Weeks 7–12: control and close

• Run payroll alongside your spreadsheet for one month before relying on it
• Reconcile bank and cash boxes weekly and close the first month
• Give the owner abroad read-only access and review user rights
• Put next year's dates in the calendar: register renewal and the tax return

Do not switch everything on at once. Start with money and stock, then add purchasing, CRM or a website once the team trusts the numbers; our playbook on phased digitalisation in Syria explains the order. If you plan to sell online, see how to launch an online store in Syria.

Your next step is small: write down your activities, currencies and staff count, then answer the short Odoo questionnaire. METCH, an official Odoo partner serving Syria, sets up the books, stock, POS and payroll described here and trains your staff in Arabic.