Egyptian parliament approves limited cabinet reshuffle

CAIRO, Jan. 14 (Xinhua) -- Egypt's lawmakers approved on Sunday a limited cabinet reshuffle, with four new ministers named for the portfolios of local development, culture, tourism and the public business sector.

The four new appointments, proposed earlier by President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi, was approved by the parliament in an extraordinary plenary meeting on Sunday, the state-sun news website Ahram Online reported.

The reshuffle of Prime Minister Sherif Ismail's cabinet is the third since it was appointed in September 2015, with the two previous reshuffles taking place in March 2016 and February 2017.

Abu Bakr al-Guindy, head of the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics, was appointed as minister of local development, while Inas Abdel Dayem, head of the Cairo Opera House, became culture minister.

Rania Mashat, deputy governor of the Central Bank of Egypt, was named minister of tourism, and Khaled Al-Badawy, the CEO of a joint-stock private-equity firm established by the National Bank of Egypt, was chosen as the minister of the public business sector.

According to the Egyptian constitution, the president can reshuffle the cabinet following consultation with the prime minister and with the approval of the parliament by an absolute majority of the attendees. Enditem