Damascus, July 28 (SANA)Head of thePlanning and Statistics AuthorityAnas Salim met on Tuesday with the joint EU and SIGMA (Support for Improvement in Governance and Management) mission to discuss ways to support public administration reform, enhance economic governance and public financial management, and expand cooperation related to the authority’s work.

Salim presented an overview of the current planning and statistics system, the work accomplished since the issuance of Decree No. 18 of 2025, along with challenges facing the authority’s work and reform priorities in this field, according to the statement on Telegram.

Salim noted the ongoing coordination with national bodies, particularly the Foreign Ministry, by linking planning work and its outputs with recovery priorities and mobilizing resources for their implementation through completing databases at public institutions to develop ministerial strategies with a focus on integrating planning roles at the national, regional and local levels.

EU support, technical assistance

The head of the joint mission expressed the EU’s readiness to provide technical support to the Planning and Statistics Authority, contributing to Syria’s return to the MEDSTAT initiative, in addition to benefiting from the soon-to-be-launched Technical Assistance Hub (TA Hub), according to the statement.

Proposed cooperation areas include public administration reform andgovernance, policy coordination, civil service and human resources development, strengthening regulation, accountability and oversight, service delivery and digital transformation, as well as public financial management, procurement and external audit, review of legislation and policies, and developing work manuals and methodologies, he said.

The SIGMA initiative is a joint programme of the OECD and the EU, established in 1992 as the technical and advisory arm supporting theEuropean Commissionin planning and implementing public administration reforms, particularly in civil service, human resource management, governance and public financial management.

The discussions follow a series of EU-Syria engagements, including a July 25 meeting between Finance Minister Mohammed Yisr Barnieh and an EU-OECD-SIGMA delegation on public financial management reform, and a July 20 meeting on public procurement reforms.