By the Gazette Editorial Board The new government that took the oath of office before President Sisi last week is not just a group of ministers replacing their predecessors but rather a reflection of a fresh orientation in the management of state policy. Underlying this observation are three characteristics that distinguish the inception and formation of Dr Moustafa Madbouli's government. In the foremost, it is the first government to embark on its executive duties through a process of transition rather than assuming the responsibilities immediately after taking the oath of office and becoming constitutionally competent to exercise its duties. In directives to the government ministers when he conferred with them following the swearing-in function, President Sisi called for coordination with their outgoing counterparts in the hand-over of responsibilities, so that the assumption of actual duties be smooth, gradual and based upon knowledge of the circumstances and ongoing plans of action in each ministry. Such directives help relieve the new ministers of the burden of having to identify the ongoing departmental tasks in action - a practice which might take some time. It is indeed an advantage for the ministers themselves as well as for the modalities of ministry-level functioning. Secondly, Dr Madbouli's government includes, also for the first time, 14 deputy ministers - a structural advantage which certainly ensures the sustainability of the overall functioning of each ministry and the availability of an increasing number of decision-making cadres. This structural advantage would be more clearly felt in cases when ministers are on out-of-station duties, paying field visits to service and production sites or while following up the progress of works for the many developmental ventures now being implemented across the country. In the case of the Housing Ministry, the portfolio of which is held by Prime Minister Madbouli himself, two deputies to the minister have been appointed; and one of them has been specifically designated to follow up the implementation of the ministry's chain of national housing projects. Thirdly, in a move that strongly reflects the state policy of pushing forward human and socio-economic development, as many as 8 women have been appointed as cabinet ministers and 4 others have been selected as deputy ministers. A reading of the formation of the new government shows that female ministers are assigned such key portfolios as planning and administrative reform, international co-operation and investment, health, culture, social solidarity, tourism, environment and migration and expatriate affairs. In itself, the move is a solid proof of the large extent that the Egyptian society has reached in the political, legislative and social empowerment of women. And it is definitely the advanced stage of woman empowerment in Egypt that has made it possible for the state to forward this noticeably large number of women as government ministers and deputy ministers.
