Syria: Presidential Decree Appointing Dr. George Malki Soumi as Minister of Irrigation

President Bashar al-Assad issued on October 3rd, 2010 Decree No. 425, appointing Dr. Mohammad Riyad Hussein Ismat as Minister of Culture and Dr. George Malki Soumi as Minister of Irrigation.

Dr. George Malki Soumi was born in al-Qameshli in 1943. An expert in irrigation and land reclamation, he received a PhD in technical sciences of irrigation and land reclamation from the Moscow Institute for Irrigation and Hydrotechnik in 1975.

He occupied the position of Director of the Irrigation and Water Uses Directorate at the Ministry of Agriculture from 1986 to 2003. In his career, he was a member of the board of trustees of the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), member of the Higher Committee for Water, and chairman of the Arab team for guidance of water use in Arab agriculture at the Arab Organization for Agricultural Development (AOAD).

He is also a UN expert in integrated management of water resources, an expert at the State Planning Commission, and a consultant at the Irrigation Committee at the People's Assembly, in addition to working with the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).

Dr. Soumi has more than 265 published works in water research and uses. He is married and has a son and two daughters.