DAMASCUS, Aug. 22 (Xinhua) -- Syria's Prime Minister Imad Khamis said Tuesday that hundreds of companies from several countries are getting in touch with the Syrian government to invest in the reconstruction process in the war-torn country, where entire cities are in ruins.
"Now we are signing agreements emanating from the vision that Syria has started recovering and is now investing through the victories of the army," Khamis said during an interview with pan-Arab al-Mayadeen TV aired late on Tuesday.
The prime minister said that his government has a "clear vision" about the reconstruction process, noting that the priority will be everything that could elevate the production capacity of Syria.
He said that Syria is "completing its victory on terrorism," noting that the cities of Damascus, Aleppo, and Latakia are "safer" than any other neighboring countries.
Khamis' remarks come as his government is now holding the Damascus' international trade fair, in a bid by the government to give a message that the recovery of Syria has started.
He pointed out that around 350,000 people are visiting the fairgrounds on daily basis, adding that 1,600 companies took part in the fair, including foreign ones from 43 countries.
Commenting on the fair, which took place for the first time since 2011, Khamis said the fair secured 50,000 job opportunities as well as "huge and unexpected" export contracts.
On the military progress, the prime minister said the current military operation against the Islamic State (IS) group in the Syrian Desert has increased the energy level in the country, with the army recapturing key gas and oil fields that had fallen to IS throughout the crisis.
He said the Syrians are fighting terrorism in tandem with the ongoing efforts on the economic level to enhance the hard-hit economy in Syria.
Meanwhile, Khamis stressed that the Syrian army will not leave one inch in Syria under the terrorists' control.
On the ground in Syria, the Syrian army and allied fighters, mainly the Lebanese Hezbollah group, have recently been engaged in wide-scale battles with the IS in the Syrian Desert and the Qalamoun region northwest of Damascus.
A military source told Xinhua on Tuesday that the Syrian army and allied fighters are making "qualitative" progress against IS in the badlands of the western Qalamoun region near Lebanon, capturing key heights that exposed all of the IS-controlled areas in barrens of Qalamoun.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, the source said the Syrian troops besieged IS in areas the terror-designated group controls in Qalamoun, adding that the forces captured 30 square km of terrain from IS in that area on Tuesday.
The source said that the Syrian forces backed by Russian air force are still fighting to lay a large siege on IS in the desert areas in the remote eastern countryside of Homs province in central Syria.
Around 17 square km are left for the Syrian army to apply a siege on IS in an area of 9,000 square km in the desert, he said, adding that the IS militants are fleeing toward Deir al-Zour province in eastern Syria.
It's expected that the IS militants will flee toward Deir al-Zour and the southern part of the northeastern province of Hasakah before the full siege is applied.
The 9,000 square km will be fast to be regained by the army, which will keep advancing in the desert until breaking the IS siege imposed on Deir al-Zour, expected to see the final battle against IS in Syria now that their stronghold in Raqqa is collapsing.
