Iran pres. nominates 4 new ministers

Wed Jul 27, 2011

Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has nominated four candidates to receive the Majlis (parliament) vote of confidence before running four ministries.

In a letter to the Majlis on Wednesday, President Ahmadinejad named Mohammad Abbasi, Abdolreza Sheikholeslami, Mehdi Ghazanfari and Rostam Qasemi respectively for the posts of ministers at the Ministry of Sports and Youth, Ministry of Cooperative, Labor and Social Welfare, Ministry of Industries, Mines and Trade as well as Ministry of Oil, IRIB reported.

Majlis Speaker Ali Larijani said that the parliamentarians will discuss the subject of candidates during a session on Tuesday.

On June 29, Iranian lawmakers approved the merger of the three ministries of Welfare and Social Security, Labor and Social Affairs as well as Cooperative into the new Ministry of Cooperative, Labor and Social Welfare.

The legislators also passed a bill to merge the ministries of Industries and Mines and Commerce to institute the new Ministry of Industries, Mines and Trade.

The announcement came after the Iranian chief executive declared the establishment of the new Ministry of Roads and Urban Development, following the Majlis' vote of confidence to Ali Nikzad, the candidate to run the ministry.

The Majlis has also rejected Hamid Sajjadi as the proposed candidate for the new Ministry of Sports and Youth.

Under Iran's Fifth Five-Year Development Plan from 2010 to 2015, the government had to reduce its ministries from 21 to 17 to improve the efficiency of the country's administration.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail/190994.html.