Syrian President Bashar al-Assad embarks on a landmark Latin American tour on Friday to reinforce economic ties with a continent he is visiting for the first time.

Accompanied by his wife, Asma, the Syrian leader will arrive in Venezuela on Friday before proceeding to Brazil and Argentina, all three home to large communities of Syrian emigres.

He will also visit Cuba to strengthen traditionally close ties.

"Bilateral relations and developments in the Middle East and Latin America" will dominate discussions in the four countries, the official SANA news agency said, without providing a detailed schedule of the visit.

"Brazil is a rising power and Syria is aware of this. The president's visit will help convince the Syrian expatriate community to begin investing in Syria," said Thabet Salem, a Syrian journalist and commentator.

Diplomats in Damascus said Assad's visit will be more focused on bilateral issues and Syria's hopes to attract $44 billion in private investment over the next five years to repair its infrastructure.

That figure represents 80 percent of Syria's gross domestic product, which is a fraction of Brazilian output.

Brazilian parliament speaker Michel Tamer said the two sides will sign trade and technology cooperation protocols. Brazil already supplies Syria with most of its sugar.

"The Arab expatriate community has an economic and cultural weight that will help expand cooperation with Syria on the government level," Tamer told the official Syrian news agency.

Jihad Yazigi, publisher of the Syria Report economic newsletter said while Syrian expatriate investment is minimal, Syria stands to gain from shifting global economic trends in favour of Latin America.

"The south-south cooperation is interesting in the context of the relative decline of the West," Yazigi said.

Syria, whose population of 20 million people is rising by 2.5 percent a year, imports most of its gas oil needs.

Its crude oil production is also declining, with Syrian oil minister forecasting production to fall to an average of 340,000 barrels per day over the next 15 years compared with a 590,000 bpd peak in 1996.

Yazigi said Syria, which is one of a few Middle East countries with a manufacturing base -- albeit in need of overhaul -- could learn from the experience of Brazil, one of the "Brics" comprising Russia, India and China.

"Syria's ties are good with all the Bric nations, which still have an important manufacturing sector," Yazigi said.

The International Monetary Fund forecasts Syria's economy to grow 5 percent this year, compared with 4 percent in 2009 and 5.2 percent in 2008. But consecutive droughts in Eastern Syria have displaced up to one million people.

The majority of the millions of Syrian-origin emigres in Brazil, Argentina and Venezuela are businessmen, engineers, doctors, politicians and even a former president -- Argentina's Carlos Menem.

The visit -- to countries like Venezuela and Cuba that share Syrian hostility toward the United States and to leftist-governed countries like Brazil and Argentina -- is aimed at "reinforcing economic ties", official Syrian media have reported.

Assad also will meet with Arab communities in those countries.

He will be received in Venezuela on Friday by President Hugo Chavez, who visited Syria in 2006 and 2009.

In Cuba, a traditional Arab ally, Assad will meet with President Raul Castro whose predecessor, his brother Fidel, paid a visit to Syria in May 2001, months after Assad succeeded his late father, Hafez.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva also visited Syria in 2003, and last March Brazil's Foreign Minister Celso Amorim carried an invitation to Assad.

In Argentina, Syria's traditionally good relations will be consolidated by the signing of nine transport, tourism and cultural agreements, said a senior official at the Argentine embassy in Damascus.

Ten percent of Argentina's population is of Arab origin, including 2.5 million of Syrian ancestry and 1.5 million of Lebanese descent, the embassy said.

Source:WorldBulletin.net