Egypt is to swear in a new Minister of Communications and Information Technology this week in a cabinet reshuffle aimed towards appeasing protesters who have grown impatient with the speed of reforms in the country. Hazem Abdel Azim will take the oath in front of Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, the head of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, the military body that is acting as the executive since former President Hosni Mubarak handed over control last February. Abdel Azim is an industry figure that also was a computing professor. His academic research focused on “Artificial Intelligence, Natural Language Processing and Electronic Computing,” according to a statement released by the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT). He replaces Maged Osman who had held the post sine February 23rd, 2011. Osman was also an academic. A press release from the MCIT said that Abdel Azim stressed that the new cabinet is a transitional rather than a caretaker government. During his tenure he would focus on “short-term-high-impact targets.” Abdel Azim is one of 15 new ministers in the cabinet, creating a group in which more than half are newcomers. BM
