10 August 2020 06:37 pm
President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, in an extraordinary gazette notification, today announced the names of 28 ministries and 40 state ministries of his new government.
The creation of the new Cabinet and state ministry portfolios has been done in keeping with the policy of his government - to assign policy formulation to the Cabinet Ministers and implementation to the State Ministers.
The Cabinet includes the posts held by the President and the Prime Minister.
The Cabinet Ministries are Defence, Finance, Buddha Sasana & Religious and Cultural Affairs, Urban Development and Housing, Justice, Foreign, Public Services & Provincial Council and Local Government, Education, Health, Labour, Environment, Wildlife and Conservation, Agriculture, Irrigation, Lands, Fisheries, Plantations, Water Supply, Power, Energy, Ports and Shipping, Transport, Highways, Youth Affairs and Sports, Tourism, Trade, Industries and Mass Media.
According to the President’s Media Division (PMD), the Gazette Notification detailed the composition, scope, institutions that come under the ministries and applicable laws and regulations of the Ministries.
It said the priorities of the nation, policy responsibilities and task have been taken into consideration when preparing the Ministries.
“State Ministries have been created in such a way as to facilitate the achievement of specific priorities and the implementation of relevant programmes in line with the broad scope of each Cabinet Ministry.
Special attention was paid to the areas of national security, economic development, infrastructure, education, health and sports in the process of formulating the Ministry structure,” the PMD said. (Kelum Bandara & Lahiru Pothmulla)