Manama: The appointment of Amani Bouresli, a Kuwait University finance professor and chairwoman at Capital Standards, as the new minister of commerce and industry, has been warmly welcomed by the business community, a local daily reported.
"There is great confidence in her capacity and expertise to handle business and economic issues," businesspeople told Al Anba newspaper. "Amni has been successful in whatever she did and her merits have been internationally recongised and rewarded," they said.
Amani is the only woman in the 16-minister cabinet announced on Sunday by Prime Minister Shaikh Nasser Al Mohammad.
In the former government which resigned in March following a standoff with the parliament, Moodhi Al Humood who held the education portfolio was the only woman minister.
The new education minister, Ahmad Al Mulaifi, pledged during a surprise visit to an education department minutes after taking the oath to decentralize work and to grant education districts more autonomy in making decisions.
Kuwait's 28th cabinet since the country's independence in 1961 and the seventh to be headed by Shaikh Nasser includes six new ministers who are making their debut in the government. Nine ministers have been retained from the previous cabinet. However, the number of ministers from the ruling family was reduced from five to four and that of ministers holding PhD degrees from seven to five.
Hours after it was announced, the cabinet came under fire from opposition lawmakers who pledged to grill the premier over allegations of squandering public funds and the health minister over charges of financial and administrative irregularities.
