In response to the initiative of the city council of Jableh represented by its mayor Eng. Fayez Alzayat, gtz the German Technical Cooperation opens today (Monday, Nov/11th/2008) a workshop with the title "State of city surveying workshop in Jableh - challenges and potentials".
The workshop invites all decision makers -in local administration, urban planning, urban development, antiguities, tourism, Awqaf, police enforcement, religious activities, NGO's activities, parliamentary work and governance-,into one big hall to meet and discuss what are the major assets of the city, and where is it standing now in terms of it's development, and where shall it be heading in the future.
All Logistic preparations were conducted by the city's local resources, proving that Jableh is a city that is capable of handling such a responsibility, specially with high profile attendants present in the workshop such as his Excellency the governor of Latakia, the director of gtz-UDP program in Syria, the director or geometrics and urban development in the ministry of local administration and environment, the mayor of Jableh, his highness the Mufti of Latakia and Jableh, the head of the police division in Jableh, Parliament members and city council members.
The workshop concentrates on the following major issues:

• Reuse of historical structures
• Tourism investments in the old city 
• Increasing role of volunteering activities in the City development
• The possibility of applying the experience of Aleppo old city in Jableh (taking into consideration Jableh's climatic characteristics, geographical location and historical/architectural identity and features that are different from Aleppo's).
•  Applying the notion of "sustainability" not only on the city as built environment but also as a social community.
•  Discussing restoration loans and facilities (credits and funds) and
• Other urban development issues.

Long before this workshop the gtz-UDP team had already conducted many activities and established numerous connections with Syrian cities starting from the middle of June 2008, and the results of these "state of city" workshops" are all feeding into the results of the [Syrian State of Cities Report] that the program is working on producing covering 16 Syrian cities.