Cairo: Egyptian Prime Minister Hisham Kandil reshuffled his cabinet yesterday. He made changes to 10 new ministers that included the Minister of Interior and Finance.
The state-run news agency MENA reported that Finance Minister Mumtaz Al Said, a key point man in talks with the IMF for a $4.8bn loan, was replaced by economist El Morsi El Sayed Hegazy. Interior Minister Ahmed Gamaleddin was replaced by police General Mohammed Ibrahim, currently one of his deputies who is in charge of prisons, a ministry source said.
The agency said that Bassem Ouda will be the new Minister of Supply and Interior Trade, Atef Helmi the Minister of Communication and Information Technology, Omar Salem as Minister of State for Legal and Parliamentary Affairs, Hatem Abdel-latif as Minister of Transportation, Ahmed Emam as Minister of Electricity and Energy, Mohamed Ali Beshr as Minister of Local Development, Wael El-Maadawy as Minister of Civil Aviation and finally Khaled Abdel-Aal was named Minister of State for Environmental Affairs.
Islamist President Mohammed Mursi had said on December 26 that he would reshuffle the government led by Qandil, following the approval in a referendum of a new constitution for Egypt.
He said the aim of the reshuffle would be to tackle the country’s troubled economy. MENA said that the new cabinet team will be sworn in today. Two ministers have already stepped down since late December, in a sign of divisions within the ranks of Qandil’s cabinet.
QNA/AFP
