Written by: Nazir Sinan

        Attorney At Law

 Translated by: The Translation Committee

IT Committee-Syria Bar Association, Damascus branch

Financial Leasing Contract

Tunisia and Egypt put it into force since 1995.

 The government is requested to enact and activate the Financial Leasing System in Syria.

 What is the reason behind the bankruptcy of some projects in Syria and what is the suggested solution?

 The economical legislation is the ground stone of the construction and development of the economy.


Since the industrial revolution and the First and Second World Wars; reaching the star war and the globalization in the twenty first century; one can realize that the economy of every country in the world started with the development of its legislations. In reviewing different countries such as Japan, Germany, France and the United States, we find that the economical legislation was the basis that the economy of such countries was built on. Furthermore, a few Arab countries, such as Tunisia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Lebanon are still seeking for establishing a complete strong economy. Moving on to Syria, the Syrian legislator has also sought to realize the same, thus issued several laws especially those in relevant to tourism and agricultural investments. The latest was, the Investment Law No. (10) of 1991, which has till now covered more than 2500 projects. It has also helped in creating a convenient investment environment which helped, to a certain extent, in attracting local and foreign capitals to be invested in all industrial, transport and agricultural spheres. Such investments benefited the country by realizing good returns of foreign currency and thus helped in providing job opportunities to the Syrians. However, in reality, this law has been used up and needs to be amended, if not annulled and replaced by a new law.

Evidenced by the facts that are urging; many investment projects faced tough and unexpected circumstances. Some investment projects were unable to start, while many others stopped after starting their initial work due to the lack of funding. As a result, many investors were obliged to request loans from the Syrian banks. However, many of them (the applicants) were not able to get the required loans from the Syrian banks where most of the banks demanded guarantees that equal 200% up to 300% out of the loan value, i.e, the required guarantees were double or triple the loan value. Accordingly, many of those projects, including the tourism projects, sought foreign banks association in order to ensure providing the needed loans. Despite the fact that many of the projects succeeded in obtaining loans, they faced serious difficulties in both production and marketing, thus were unable to achieve their planned economic feasibility. As a result, some of the projects failed in repaying the loans installments and/or their interests, thus hundred of the tourism projects ceased and some were put under judicial custody or provisionally seized by the competent court, then were sold in the public auction throughout force executions. Despite all that, the outcome of the sale was not enough to settle the bank payments.
It should be mentioned here that the failure of many projects were due to the following:

1- Non-availability of a special financing policy for each project.
2- Lack of sound feasibility study.
3- Non-existence of a real marketing plan.

Such failures were reported in the newspapers which published and announced the bankruptcy of many projects as well as the projects which were put under custody, provisional attachments and thus sold in public auction. For example, the Ba’ath newspaper issue No. (11868) of 29-8-2002, reported in page 14, the meeting of the High Tourism Council held on 27-8-2002 which had witnessed a debate regarding the suitable ways of advancing and booming the tourism industry in Syria in a process to overcome the existing obstacles and to increase the income and the job opportunities. The Council had also discussed the matters related to the ceased tourist projects which reached 218 projects; 145 of which had ceased after being operated and 73 were licensed but not at all accomplished.

It is also worth noting that many owners of the licensed tourism projects (investment-organizational) sold villas on maps before the Ministry of Tourism has issued its organizational licensing resolution and without any guarantees and proofs of execution, at least having 50% of the required funds to execute such projects. The number of villas which were sold on maps exceeded 125 villas, at sale prices ranged between 5,000,000 and 9,000,000 Syrian Pounds. People who might have got involved and bought such villas (on maps) would have faced a big financial loss and consequently, have lost their entire long term saving and suffered of serious financial losses.

For all of the above:
The legal and national obligation requires the High Council of Investment as well as the High Tourism Council and in general all the other concerned authorities, to carefully examine whether investors who apply to include their projects under the Investment Law No. (10) of 1991 or under the agriculture and tourism regulations have carefully set up a financial plan for their investments, in order to prove their proper sound finance. The investors, therefore, shall be asked to provide the concerned authorities with official documents proving their solvency before the license is issued, along with an official bank statement or an official paper issued from either a financial association, or other joint partners which shows that the investor possesses at least 25% up to 35% of the whole project value. A clear financing plan up to the turn-key stage is also required. This is because some of the projects owners who obtained the resolution to operate their projects under the Investment Law and/or the Tourism Laws, started propagating and promoting their projects inside and outside Syria for the purpose of obtaining the required capital for their projects from those who are neither founders nor owners of such projects. As a result, some of the projects’ owners were committed and achieved their projects, while some others executed no more than 15% to 25% of the project after they obtained more than 65% of the project value from others (as share-holders). They then declared their bankruptcy, thus subjected the third party (share-holder) funds to loss or depreciation. Consequently, floods of law cases raised up by the share-holders against the projects’ owners in which they claimed back their rights and funds…..Hence, the project finance provider remains waiting for the results of his law suite, when and where it would come to an end??
The project finance provider (the share-holder or the money lender), however, poses the following questions:

 How did I get involved in such a project?
 How did the government licensed for such a project to be established or erected before making sure of the availability of finance and funds of not less than 40% to 60% of the project’s value?
 Why the competent authorities had not taken into account the risks of non-availability of documents that should have initially proved the finance of the project owner before granting the relative license?
 When would I be able to get back the funds I have paid?
 Is the court’s decision of provisional seizure on the project fund sufficient to get back my funds and rights and those belonging to other share-holders?

In reply to the above questions, we say: the investor or the one who loaned or participated in the project is liable for the consequences of his contribution because he did not take the trouble of seeking a legal consultation regarding the project, its owners, its purpose or its economical feasibility study, the marketing of its products, the sources of its financing and the guarantees for its implementation.
At the end we shall say: in all cases, the party responsible for all the consequences that might occur, is the person who contributes blindfold to the project. However, the shareholder loss in the project is not really equal to the loss that will badly affect the reputation and the good status of the investments in Syria, as the loss will greatly affect the Syrian economy.

Based on the aforementioned, we say:
It is time now, particularly during the development and modernization stage of the economic legislation which Syria is going through, to say that the aim of both the project owner and the investor is to achieve the project purpose, however, the circumstances behind have become very difficult, and both the internal and external financing and banking corporations are requiring tough financing conditions and stipulations. Some of those corporations stipulate five years payoff period at high interest rates which might be the reason behind the projects going into bankruptcy before even entering the stage of production, as indicated above.

The questions to be raised now:

 What action should be taken to avoid the insolvency of the projects before their start up?
 What action is required to provide the necessary protection for the projects before they are licensed or during their operation?
 How shall we protect the local and foreign investors?

In reply to the above questions we say:
Syria along with most countries of the Middle East including the Arab states, stands in a regional changing stage which features, images and aims are still unclear. It is, therefore, the duty and obligation of every Syrian Arab citizen (a resident or an immigrant; an employee or a scholar; a person in charge or a member in any of the syndicates) to contribute to the achievement of the national project which was initiated and put into implementation by Dr Bashar Al Assad on 17-07-2000. Such a project includes the economical legislation development which cannot be achieved in one, two or even three years, but rather, needs enough time to overcome the economical, social, health and educational problems that Syria is clearly and explicitly facing. Those problems need to be well analyzed in order to reach radical solutions. This cannot be reached by only laying the responsibility on the government and/or on the public organizations, but rather every Syrian citizen (resident or immigrant) must share this responsibility and accordingly contribute to the achievement and development of the national project
Yet;
Facing the new economical challenges in the world and the investment blocs existing in the free world as well as the economical invasion that is facing Syria and the Arab world nowadays through the open market for every product in such a free world, we are in an urging need to provide the required finance to the commercial and industrial projects, whether owned by natural or corporate persons alike by which we can protect the existing and future potential projects and enterprises from the risks presented by the products coming from the east and/or the west. Therefore, we shall insist on one very important matter that is; Syria is in need to modernize its commercial legislation by amending and adding new laws. The Commercial Law of 1949 is considered one of the most important laws that affects the political, economic and social phenomena, and the most closely related law to the practical life. Despite that, it comes ahead of several laws that need to be amended or replaced when economical and social development requires. The most urgent need now is to abolish the current Commercial Law and/or to replace it by a new law that goes well with the movement of the economical development in the world, or at least the one spread in some Arab States. Yet, if the legislator finds that it is not the proper time for the Commercial Law to be abolished or replaced by a new one, we shall emphasis on the necessity to develop and amend the commercial law by adding some new articles that can meet up with the recent economical needs in Syria.
As an example, the third book of the Commercial Law refers to commercial contracts (the commercial agency), commissions and intermediations, brokerage, transport contracts, commercial mortgages as well as banking operations, an additional chapter after article 409 that refers to financial leasing contracts may be added in order to achieve the following goals:

- Financing the machinery and equipment used in the industrial projects.
- Financing the technology and the projects feasibility studies.
- Rehabilitation of manpower.

The Commercial, industrial and services experiments in several countries, including Syria, have proved the deficiency and/or failure of some banks and businessmen to meet the projects financial requirements to provide the supply of their production equipment. Such deficiency is due to the following:

- The fear of loss of their loan- funds.
- The demand of interests, commissions and expenses that range between 9% up to 30% of the loan’s value and consequently the refusal of the projects’ owners to such exuberant interest rates.
- The weakness of securities and guarantees, particularly, the real estate ones.

This would make us seek the necessity to follow modern methods and tracks that differ from the contract loans or the deferred and installment sales. The experiments in Syria have shown that several projects which relied on bank loans or loans from businessmen, suffered heavy losses due to the accumulation of the high interest rates that ranged between 9% to 30%, accordingly, they failed before or after the production stage to pay their due installments on maturity dates. Accordingly, several projects went bankrupt and then subjecting the lender or the finance provider (the undeclared one) to a division among creditors upon collecting his debts from the borrower certainly after the settlement with the preferred creditors. Thus, the ordinary share-holder (the lender) may not get back more than 5% up to 15% of the amounts he participated with to unsuccessful project.
Therefore,
It is time for the industrial and/or services projects’ to obtain the necessary production means, such as machinery, equipment and buildings, not through sales’ on credit, bank loans or finance provider, under harsh conditions, but rather through a new way; by renting the machinery and equipment for operation against fixed payments to be agreed upon between the Lessee and the Finance provider. Thus, the finance provider shall be far from being bankrupted as he can either retrieve his leased equipment, or the project shall continue in its operation. The Lessee thereafter, will not be obliged to pay in advance the price of the machineries as he has the right, at the end of the leasing contracting period, to choose buying the rented equipment from the Lessor or returning them accordingly.



Defining the Financial Leasing Contract?

A comprehensive precise definition for a “Financial Leasing Contract” has not been found. Yet, it may be interpreted and defined throughout legislations, judicial practice and legal recourses by the following:

It is a deed via which a Financial Leasing Corporation finances commercial, industrial, professional, agricultural or technical projects by supplying them with all necessary needed equipment, machines and buildings.

However, different opinions have clashed among legal scholars regarding the definition of the leasing contract, therefore, different concepts were proposed, some of those concepts considered the financial leasing contract as;

 A leasing contract.
 A financing contract for productive investments (compound legal system).
 A new legal formula that permits using properties and equipment which the project is initially unable to own.
 A legal system composed of traditional forms of commercial contracts distinguished in some specifications.

Thus, by inducting the jurisprudence in France and other countries, one shall conclude that the legal nature of a Financial Leasing Contract composes of the following legal basis:

 A binding rental promise for both parties.
 An agency.
 A commitment taken by either the leasing company or the financial enterprise (the finance provider) under which the Lessee shall have the right of choosing to buy the properties leased thereto.

On the basis of the foregoing, it seems that the Financial Leasing Contract is a combination of various civil and commercial contracts, i.e (agency, lease, sale-purchase and even a promise to sell and to possess), yet, it remains different from all types of contracts. However, it should be noted that the leasing contract is commonly considered as a commercial contract as it is mostly used within the commercial transaction spheres.



The Bases of a Leasing Contract:

Chapter one of the Syrian Civil Law, Article 92 till 138, provides the essential elements of contracts in general. Yet, it has been found that the financial leasing contract is like any other contract, therefore, the general required rules for any contract should be fulfilled therein to consider it a sound contract.

Acceptance:

The will of the parties (the Lessor and the Lessee) should concur regarding the erection or expansion of the established industrial or commercial project, and regarding the renewal of the buildings and equipment that exist in the erected project. The project owner is requested to provide the particular financial institution (the lessor) that is specialized in renting the required properties and necessary funds via the leasing contracts, with an application includes the following:

- The status of the applicant (whether natural or artificial person) along with a summary about his commercial or industrial status and all necessary covering information regarding his movable and immovable properties.

- The project, its feasibility study, the expected tax-paid assessments, the investment plan, the funds dedicated by the applicant and the funds needed from the provider.

Thereafter, the finance provider precisely studies the presented application. Accordingly, if decided that the required finance (leasing operation) tends to be secure and successful, the application will be accepted, otherwise, rejected.



The contractual parties:

Under a Financial Leasing Contract, the contractual parties are; the LESSOR (the finance provider) and the LESSEE, with the possibility of presence of a third party, the manufacturer or the supplier for the machines and equipment necessary for the accomplishment of the erected project.

The Egyptian legislator states in Article (1) of the Finance Leasing Law No. (95) of 1995 the following:

The LESSOR is every natural or artificial person (corporate) exercising financial lease operations, after being registered in accordance with the provisions of law. The LESSOR maybe a bank, if so authorized by the Central Bank of Egypt, according to the terms and conditions determined in the licensing decree.

Yet, the Egyptian jurisprudence and legal scholars strongly criticized this context. According to them, such type of commercial activities should be only determined by artificial persons (corporate), throughout joint stock companies established with a financing leasing object and a minimum capital determined by law. Such type of companies should be controlled in all of its work and contracts in order to secure its legitimate business as the finance leasing operation is considered to be “credit operations” per se, hence, needs to be subject to the Central Bank control.

The Nature of a Finance Leasing Contract and its properties:

In pursuance of the French Law, different kinds of properties maybe financially leased.

A: Movable properties:
All equipment and machines that are necessary for the erected project operation and services, regardless of the nature of the financed project whether commercial, industrial, agricultural, professional or related to any craft.

B: Immovable properties:
The leasing contract may be applied to finance purchasing real estates and then release them to the lessee. That can be worked out throughout the following two methods:

The first method: to purchase a well established real property ready to be used.

The second method: is to set up a building to be leased under a leasing contract. In order to realize the aim of this method, civil real-estate companies were established.

Furthermore, the French jurisprudence has guaranteed the estate lessee the right of choosing to purchase the estate leased thereto, which he invested his commercial project in (a promise to sell to one party only who is ‘the lessor’) or to revoke the contract upon it expiration.

The Reasons Behind the Emergence of the Financial Leasing Contract:

The emergence of the Financial Leasing Contract is mainly due to economic reasons. On one hand, the financial leasing contract provides the Lessee with all equipment and real properties which he is financially unable to buy from his own money and the Lessee, at the end of the agreed term, might choose to buy the assets he used, thus return the money he paid throughout the agreed annual rentals. On the other hand, the Lessor shall safely invest his money.

The French, Egyptian and American legislators have confirmed the nullity of the “Leasing Contract” if the purpose of purchasing the properties is something else rather than deposing them under the Lessee proposal as a way of leasing. In such a case the financial leasing contract will be considered null and void due to the nullity of its legal cause Moreover, under a Financial Leasing Contract both parties (the Lessor and the Lessee) should enjoy the legal capacity for signing a contract. Furthermore, many countries such as France, the United Kingdom, Egypt and the United States have confirmed that a finance leasing contract should necessarily be recognized in writing, in order to avoid possible disputes that might arise in future regarding the contract conditions or the compatibility of the will of the parties. Nevertheless the legislators confirmed the necessity of proclaiming and publishing the financial leasing contract.

Expiry of a Financial Leasing Contract:

In case the contract expires without renewal or without the property being bought by the Lessee, the Lessee, Trustee or Liquidator, according to each case, shall deliver the property leased to him, to the Lessor, under the conditions agreed upon in the leasing contract. If the Lessee refrains from delivering thereof, the Lessor may then submit a petition to the Summary Court Justice, to issue a Writ of Delivery, in pursuance of the provisions of the Syrian Civil and Commercial Procedures (Article 194) in respect of that petition. The Lessee in such a case will be considered to commit the Breach of Trust crime. The Summary Court Justice thereafter, issues a judgment by which the petition is confirmed, amended or revoked.
Article (20) of the Egyptian Law No. (95) of 1995 stipulated on the same procedures set above in case the Lessee refrains from delivering the property leased to him. Moreover, jurisprudence in France, agreed unanimously that a Financial Leasing Contract shall be subject to the applicable general rules when contracts are expired.

The reasons for expiring a contract can be briefly set forth as the following:

 The end of the leasing period: The Lessee, hereof, has the right of:

1- choosing to buy the property leased thereto. i.e; (real estates and equipment) at the time and price determined in the contract, providing that in determining the price, the rental amount paid thereby shall be taken into consideration. The French law No. (445) of 1966 stipulated that the Lessee has the right to buy the equipment rented to him whether in whole or in part, at the price and time determined in the contract, provided that in determining the price, the rental amounts paid thereby shall be taken into account. The Egyptian legislator also referred to this point in Article (5/1) of the Law No. (95) of 1995 where the rental value is considered a part in return of the value of the rented equipment, while the Lessee has to pay a price equal to the part which is not consumed from the value of the rented equipment (money). The following example clarifies the mentioned herein:
- The value of the leasing contract when signed “10,000,000” Million Syrian Pounds for the rented period.
- The rental period: 5 years.
- Consumption: 10% yearly. Meaning 1,000,000 Million Syrian Pounds per year. The consumption in six years will be 6,000,000 Million Syrian Pounds. Thus, the Lessee shall pay the Lessor 4,000,000 Million Syrian Pounds which equals to the value of the properties (equipment) which were not used throughout the leasing period. The purchase process thereafter, is considered to be completed against a low price, in comparison with the money cost when the financial leasing contract was signed. If, for whatsoever reason, the Lessor does not take into account the rental amount paid thereby, the Lessee thereof, shall have the right to resort judiciary procedures in order to reconsider the selling price of the purchased properties, if not previously determined in the leasing contract, provided that the Lessee had agreed upon signing the financial leasing contract, to purchase the properties leased to him. In all cases, the Lessor shall be obliged to sell the properties, and shall be subject to the general obligations stipulated in the Sales’ contracts, i.e, transferring the property sold to the purchaser, as per the general rules covering the purchase of the things whether movable or immovable.

2- Renewal of the Financial Leasing Contract: Both the French and the Egyptian legislators stated that the Lessee shall have the right to renew the financial leasing contract and to benefit from the properties in accordance with the conditions agreed upon between the two parties either when signing the contract (article (5) of the law NO. (95) of 1995), or at the end of the contracting period. The French law, contrary to the Egyptian law deemed that the right of renewal of the leasing contract belongs to the Lessor, however, in all cases, the two parties shall entitle to agree on the possibility on renewing or non-renewing the financial leasing contract.

3- Returning the leased property to the Lessor; is the latest case to finalize the contract. The Lessee herein shall return the leased property to the Lessor at the end of the financing leasing period, as agreed upon between the two parties. Provided that the parties have agreed on that; the Lessee shall upon delivering the properties (equipment, buildings, machines etc..) leased to him to the Lessor, sign a document of receipt regarding the financial leasing contract.

Reasons for Annulling a Financial Leasing Contract:

The French, Egyptian and Jordanian legislators left determining that issue to the general rules such as:

- Agreement on annulling the contract.
- Annulling the contact through judiciary in case one of the two parties breaches his obligations.

In practice: We found that many leasing companies stipulates in their Leasing Contracts on their right to annul or revoke the financial leasing contract, if the Lessee does not fulfill his obligations in paying the rental values as agreed upon in accordance with the procedures covering the form as stipulated in the general contract rules. However, the Egyptian legislator stated in Article (19) of the Law No. (95) of 1995 that the Leasing Contract shall be considered automatically rescinded without any need for addressing a notification, warning or revoking it or taking judicial procedures as in the following briefed cases:

- Lessee’s failure to settle the rental value agreed upon within the date agreed upon in the contract.
- Declaring the Lessee bankruptcy or insolvent.
- Upon finalizing the liquidation procedures, whether it is mandatory or voluntary.

Hence, the consequences resulted from revoking a Financial Leasing Contract should be pointed out as the following:

It is well known in jurisprudence and law that the two contractual parties shall be returned to the situation before contracting. However, this principle cannot be deemed fair. Therefore, it is agreed that the period which passed since the leasing contract was put into force, and before the annulment of the contract shall remain effective in respect of all contract provisions and effects that might have resulted during the valid execution period. Thus, the Leasing Contract shall not be considered null and void unless its nullity is confirmed by a judicial judgment. The Lessor therein shall preserve all rental values obtained during the period before the annulment date. In the meantime, a presence of a third party (the Supplier or the Contactor) who might have had a primary role in establishing a leasing contract by extending his services in relation to the property necessary for the erected project is possible. The Egyptian legislator noted in Article (22) of its Financial Leasing Law that the court ruling rescinding or invalidating the lease signed between the Supplier or the Contractor and the Lessor shall not result in any of the lease contracts signed between the Lessor and the Lessee. However, the Supplier or the Contractor may have remedy direct over the Lessee regarding the rights of the former before the lessor which result from the court judgment rescinding or annulling his contract, however, within the limits and not exceeding the Lessee’s obligations vis a vis the Lessor.
From the aforementioned, we conclude that the Egyptian legislator intended to maintain the Supplier and/or Contractor rights in case of rescinding or annulling the leasing contract.

At the end, it is necessary to refer to the provisions of Article (28) of the Egyptian law No. (95) of 1995 which states that: customs, taxes and duties which were paid on a property imported for lease purposes shall be refunded if this property is re-exported in accordance with the provisions of this law. Furthermore, the Egyptian legislator has prohibited any person who is not recorded in the Register of Lessors from using the term Financial Lease. Any person violates this prohibition shall be subject to a high financial penalty and shall be sent to jail for a period not less than three months.

The questions which might be asked therein:

 Is the developing and modernization stage which Syria is going through prescribes a real need to such kind of business such as the financial leasing contract?
 What are the benefits and the targets of the financial leasing contract?
 What are its tools and guarantees?
 Is such kind of a contract incompatible with the social and economy development stage in Syria?

In reply to these kind of questions, we say:
The leasing notion belongs to the ancient ages and to the effective laws in some countries during that period, such as in the Roman Empire. Moreover, some researches found that the leasing notion belongs to Hamorabi’s Code regarding the movable or immovable (real estates) properties alike. Hence, such a notion developed during the modern ages up till now. The financial leasing notion started in the United States of America during the 1952-1973, when a Limited State Leasing Corporation was established by (DB. Booth Junion) who owned, at that time, a small factory for food processing. In 1950, the American Ministry of Defense requested Mr. Junion to supply the American army in Korea with large quantities of his products. Mr. Junion found himself unable to fulfill the Ministry of Defense requirements as he lacked the liquidity to buy the equipment necessary for producing his conserved food products, thus he failed. However, Mr. Junion kept on his researches until he established the first leasing company in 1952, under the name of “Leasing Corporation of United States”. As a result of his success, many businessmen and financial corporations rushed to establish same leasing companies for the fiscal exemptions such enterprises enjoy on the machinery and equipment under a financial leasing contract.
Those leasing companies have participated in many of the industrial, agricultural and tourism projects as well as in the development of the American economy. (The table listed below shows the quick development process of such companies).
 

Furthermore, it should be pointed out that 85% of the petroleum projects up to 93% are based on a leasing contract. Such contracts contribute in supplying the commercial, industrial, agricultural and transportation projects with machines, equipment, and even airplanes necessary for such projects.

Afterwards, the financial leasing system moved on to Europe. Great Britain was the first European country that started to establish branches for the American leasing companies “Credit Company and Mercantile”. The leasing companies then spread out in Spain, Belgium, Germany, Holland and France where the company of “Locafrance” was established in 1962. France kept amending its Financial Leasing Law till the 1995 when the last amendment took place. According to A.S.F. statistics, the net profit in the leasing balance sheet reached (194,8) Milliard French Franc.

The notion of the Financial Leasing Contracts got also known in some Arab countries such as Tunisia and Morocco. “S.M.P Company” and the “Bank of France and Holland” which is nowadays called “Paradis Bank” were both established as well as the Morocco-Leasing Corporation initiated the E.E.M Corporation. Egypt also enacted the law No. (95) of 1995, taking the advantage of the French experience in this concern, which helped to avoid different legal problems, in particular, regarding the judicial cases that occurred among the Lessor, the Lessee, and the Contractor or the Supplier. The financial leasing concept also spread into the African countries such as the Senegal, Togo, Niger and Porkina Faso.
Finally;
We are still waiting for the concerned authorities of the Syrian government to issue a law to cover the Financial Leasing System, likewise the one issued and applied in France and Egypt, in order to start a new legislative period in the Syrian economy, thus build the development and modernization which president Dr. Bashar Al-Assad is looking for and has been calling upon since 17-07-2000, all for the prosperity of our country in all spheres in order to make Syria a distinguished country among all countries not only in the Arab league but also in the whole Middle East.