Egypt’s new Cabinet of Ministers swore in

Ceremony of swearing in of Egyptian new Cabinet
(Image: Chron)

Egypt’s new Cabinet of Ministers swore in on Tuesday, 17 June, in Cairo’s Presidential Palace. This Cabinet is the first government since Egypt’s new President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi has taken his office in June. It’s worth mentioning though, that most of the ministers of the new government remained in their positions from the previous interim government, as a Cabinet experienced also reshuffle. Several ministries were removed, such as Information Ministry, while the others were added.

The ceremony of taking an oath and swearing in was being held after the morning meeting of the ministers with the Prime Minister Ibrahim Mehleb, who was recently reappointed on this position by Egypt’s President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi and was instructed by the President to form the new government. El-Sisi also attended the ceremony and delivered a speech in front of the ministers, noting the key issues and tasks for the new government in order to resolve the current problems and to achieve the goals for the better future of Egyptian state.

During his speech at the ceremony President El-Sisi has stated that his and the new government’s main task and aim is to restore stability and security in Egypt and to bring it back on the path of development after three turbulent years since Hosni Mubarak was ousted in 2011. President gave clear instructions to the newly sworn Cabinet of Ministers, declaring that the main goal of the government is building the new strong state, reflecting the will, wishes and aspirations of Egyptians. He mentioned also that there is a big number of serious challenges that must be tackled without delay in order to start implementation of the necessary reforms and realization of the “roadmap plan”, which includes also early parliamentary elections.

Egypt’s reappointed Prime Minister Ibrahim Mehleb has declared in his turn that the new government will work on resolving the numerous current problems the country is facing, and that the main tasks are work on development of Egypt’s economic, political, democratic and social conditions, restoring security and stability, combating corruption, povetry and unemployment and building a “strong state”.

Thus, the new Cabinet of Ministers consists of 34 ministers, including four ladies and several technocrats. Several ministries were excluded from the new government, such as Ministry of Information and Ministry of Administrative Development. As for Ministry of Information, it was actually a governmental body overseeing activities and work of state television, press and media and was removed from the new government in accordance with the norms of the recently amended Egyptian Constitution, guaranteeing freedom of information. Several Ministries were added, such as Ministry of Investment and Ministry of State for Urban Development, aimed to deal with the problem of numerous slums, as millions of Egyptians still live in the slums and under terrible conditions, so the new ministry was created in order to resolve this problem and to provide poor people with the settlements and basic infrastructure.

In general, new Cabinet of Ministers includes 34 ministers, among them 13 new ministers.

As for the ministers who regained their positions from the previous interim government, there are following:

Ibrahim Mehleb – Prime Minister.

Sedki Sobhi – Minister of Defense.

Mohamed Ibrahim – Minister of Interior.

Hani Qadri Youssef Damian – Minister of Finance.

Ghada Wali – Minister of Social Solidarity.

Mahmoud Aboul Nasr – Minister of Education.

Mohamed Hamid Shaker – Minister of Electricity and Renewable Energy.

Mohamed Hisham Abbas Zazou – Minister of Tourism.

Atef Helmi – Minister of Communications and Information Technologies.

Sherif Ismail – Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources.

Mohammed Hossam El-Deen – Minister of Civil Aviation.

Mostafa Kamal Madbuli – Minister of Housing.

Khaled Mohammed Hanafi – Minister of Supply and Domestic Trade.

Nahed Ali Ashri – Minister of Labor and immigration.

Mohammed Mokhtar Gomaa – Minister of Religious Endowment.

Ashraf Al-Sayed Al-Arabi – Minister of Planning.

Adel Al-Adawy – Minister of health and Population.

Adel Labib – Minister of Domestic Development.

Khaled Abdel-Aziz – Minister of Youth and Sport.

Ibrahim Younis Ismail – Minister of State for Military Production.

There are also 13 new ministers appointed for the new government and sworn in on Tuesday:

Sameh Shoukri – Minister of Foreign Affairs, who replaced on this position Nabil Fahmy.

Al-Sayed Ahmed Abdel Khaleq – Minister of higher Education.

Ahmed Gaber Asfour – Minister of Culture.

Mahfouz Saber Abdel – Minister of Justice, who is famous for the numeral cases against Mohamed Morsi’s supporters and members of Muslim Brotherhood.

Ibrahim Hemaidy – Minister of Transition Justice and Parliamentary Affairs.

Ashraf Salman – Minister of Investment (newly created ministry).

Adel Tawfiq El-Beltagy – Minister of Agriculture.

Hany Dahy – Minister of Transportation.

Hussein Mohammed El-Mughazi – Minister of Water Resources and Irrigation.

Mamdouh Al-Damati – Minister of Antiquities.

Khaled Fahmy – Minister of Environment.

Mounir Fakhry Abdel Nour – Minister of Industry and Trade.

Naglaa Al-Ahwani – Minister of Scientific Research.

Laila Iskander – Minister of State for Urban Development.