Visitng Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and RoA President Serzh Sargsyan were on hand to officially open today's Armenian-Syrian Business Summit at the Government House in Yerevan. Addressing the forum, President Sargsyan stated that, " Armenian-Syrian friendship is based on firm grounds. Under the conditions of the current political and economic realities our countries are building cordial and dynamically developing relations of a new quality, where the levels of political and economic collaboration must be placed on an equal footing." According to President Sargsyan, the current level of trade-economic cooperation does not reflect thecordial feelingsthat our two peoples share. "This forum is a good opportunity to get acquainted with each other’s achievements in the trade-economic sector, to establish business ties. I do believe that a great potential exists in the scientific-technical, agricultural, energy, urban development, tourism, trade and financial sectors, and our task of today is to set realistic objectives targeted at the utilization of that potential," the president said. President Sargsyan ascribed a great role to the Syrian Armenian community. He urged them to use theirresources and business ties to expose the true trade-economic potential of Armenia and to facilitate the cross-marketing of each nations products. President Sargsyan asserted that any new endeavor or project targeted at the intensification of economic ties would be supported by the Armenian government.