DUBAI (Mustapha Ajbaili)
Morocco’s King Mohammed VI on Monday made a partial cabinet reshuffle, replacing interior and justice ministers to “give greater momentum to major development projects and structural institutional reforms,” the royal council said in a statement.
Former Interior Minister Chakib Benmoussa was replaced with Taieb Cherkaoui and Mohamed Naciri was appointed new justice minister, instead of Abdelouahed Radi.
Other changes involved the ministries of Tourism and Handicrafts, Relations with Parliament and Modernization of Public Sectors.
After holding various positions within the judiciary, the new Interior Minister Cherkaoui, 60, was appointed in August 2008 president of Morocco’s Supreme Court.
The king paid tribute to outgoing ministers, stressing in particular the role of Abdelouahed Radi “in the action he has taken to head the Ministry of Justice, and for his sincere commitment to the comprehensive reforms in the judicial system.”
Regional governance
The new cabinet reshuffle came a day after the monarch appointed the Advisory Committee on Regionalization charged with developing a plan to strengthen regional governance across the kingdom.
“I expect the committee to draw up a general plan for a sophisticated, national regionalization model, covering all of the Kingdom’s regions,” King Mohammed VI said in a speech addressed to the nation.
“The extensive regionalization we want to achieve is not a mere technical or administrative procedure, but rather a major initiative for the overhaul and modernization of state structures and for the achievement of integrated development,” the king added.
Morocco’s ambassador to Madrid, Omar Azziman, was appoint head of the committee, composed of 21 other members, including three women, from different academic and professional backgrounds.
*Published in alarabiya.net/english
