PUTRAJAYA: Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim today announced the appointment of five ministers and five deputy ministers, comprising four fresh faces, as well as the return of five former ministers.
The Prime Minister also announced the restructuring of the ministries based on current needs, involving the Ministry of Natural Resources, Environment, and Climate Change, which is now split into the Ministry of Energy Transition and Public Utilities, and the Ministry of Natural Resources and Sustainability.
The Communications and Digital Ministry is also split into the Ministry of Communications and the Ministry of Digital.
The announcement also saw the number of ministers in the Cabinet expanded from 28 to 31, while the number of deputy ministers was increased from 27 to 29, bringing the total number of unity government administrative members to 60.
The new ministers appointed today were Titiwangsa Members of Parliament (MP) and Umno vice-president Datuk Seri Johari Abdul Ghani as the Minister of Plantation and Commodities; Damansara MP and DAP deputy chairman Gobind Singh Deo (Minister of Digital); Kuala Selangor MP Datuk Seri Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad (Minister of Health); and Employees' Provident Fund (EPF) chief executive officer, Senator Datuk Seri Amir Hamzah Azizan (Finance Minister II).
Former Deputy Finance Minister Steven Sim Chee Keong was also appointed as full minister in charge of Human Resources.
The new deputy ministers are Datuk Seri Dr Noraini Ahmad (Women, Family and Community Development), M. Kulasegaran (Law and Institutional Reform), Datuk Ramanan Ramakrishnan (Entrepreneur Development and Cooperatives), Wong Kah Woh (Education) and Senator Dr Zulkifli Hasan (Religious Affairs).
The Cabinet reshuffle also saw Human Resources Minister V. Sivakumar, as well as two deputy ministers Ramkarpal Singh (Law and Institutional Reform) and Datuk Siti Aminah Aching (Plantation and Commodities) dropped. -- BERNAMA