The Damascus Securities Exchange (DSE) launched in March had been a long time coming, like a financial version of the play “Waiting for Godot.” Year after year, articles would emerge in the press — this magazine included — that the DSE was slated for launch by year’s end. Back in June 2007, Executive paid a visit to the future site of the bourse in Birzeh in northeastern Damascus, then housing the Syrian Commission on Financial Markets and Securities. The Commission’s plain gray concrete building looked like any other non-descript government structure in a Damascene suburb: the ubiquitous Syrian flag draped over the main doorway, security guards milling around, and badly lit interiors. The room on the ground floor that was to become the trading floor resembled a small theater or cinema, with 50 odd, dusty, red felt seats facing a curtained stage. Such a gloomy interior did not look like
