Ziad Bahaa Eddin, candidate for the post of Minister of International Cooperation, has said that the new cabinet will only focus on six main dossiers due to the body's transitional nature.
The six areas of focus will be restoring security to the streets, operating factories where work has been suspended, regulating public finance, pushing the political process forward, conducting fair elections and providing resources, without increasing the budget deficit, to supply low income families with services and jobs. Bahaa Eddin added that this would require legislation for free information.
In a statement to Al-Masry Al-Youm, Bahaa Eddin, who is also a candidate for the post of deputy prime minister for economic development, added that officials are thinking about changing the work approach for monitoring bodies so that they focus on the 100 most important corruption dossiers, whatever they may be. There is also a movement demanding that Mohamed ElBaradei, the vice president for foreign relations, take responsibility for the reconciliation dossier, at the political and business level.
Bahaa Eddin said that the cabinet has received several proposals from citizens and experts to help lower-income families, including ideas to cancel small loans or offer plots of construction land to citizens of a specific age, as well as to raise the tax exemption ceiling for employees and to provide facilities for owners of small projects and street vendors.
In related news, a government source said that the makeup of the new cabinet will be based on candidates' ability to integrate efforts to achieve development. The cabinet will send a message to society that it is seeking social justice.
The source also said that appointments to the ministries would be based on a candidate's ability to run operations efficiently regardless of whether the candidate has a vision for the future or not.
The source also said that appointees to business and investment ministries had been made based on their ability to understand the needs of the public and private sector, while service ministries were handed to candidates with a serious interest in social justice.
The source also revealed that Al-Azhar's opinion was solicited regarding the appointment of the Endowments Minister in order for the two institutions to work together to serve the purposes of moderate Islam.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
