najib's new cabinet.

Najib names 28-member Cabinet (Update 3)

KUALA LUMPUR: Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak's new Cabinet will have 28 members. Two ministries have been abolished.

New Cabinet line-up: Prime Minister and Finance Minister 1 - Najib

Deputy PM and Education Minister - Muhyiddin

Finance Minister 2 - Ahmad Husni

Ministers in PM dept - Nazri, Nor Yaakob, Koh Tsu Koon and Jamil

Transport - Ong Tee Keat

Maximus Ongkili - Science and Technology

Ahmad Zahid Hamidi - Defence

Hishammuddin - Home

Shafie Apdal - Rural Development

Kong Cho Ha - Housing and Local Govt

Liow Tiong Lai - Health

Ng Yen Yen - Tourism

S. Subramaniam - Human Resource

Douglas Uggah - Natural Resources and Environment

Shahrizat - Women, Family and Community Development

Mustapa Mohamed - International Trade and Industry

Khaled Nordin - Higher Education

Rais Yatim - Information, Unity, Culture and Arts

Noh Omar - Agriculture

Shahziman Mansor - Works

Ismail Sabri - Domestic Trade

Ahmad Shabery Cheek - Sports

Anifah Aman - Foreign

Raja Nong Chik - Federal Territories

Earlier Najib left Istana Terengganu at about 11.25am after a 30-min audience with King regarding the new Cabinet line-up expected to be announced 3pm Thursday.

Najib arrived at the palace 10.57am to submit the list to Tuanku Mizan and left about 30 minutes later without stopping to speak to the media representatives waiting outside the gate.

He is scheduled to announce the new cabinet lineup in Putrajaya at 3pm. The new ministers and deputy ministers will take their oath of office at Istana Negara at 9.30am Friday.

Umno sources earlier said that Najib had spent the last five days juggling names and positions to take into consideration the requests and views of various Barisan Nasional component parties.

It is speculated that there could be as many as seven new faces in the line-up – most of them from Umno, while the party itself may give up a few ministerial posts.

Up till Wednesday evening, several Barisan component leaders had met with Najib and Umno deputy president Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, who will be named Deputy Prime Minister Thursday.

The message Najib had for all of them was the same – that Umno was giving up quite a number of posts and that they should also be willing to make sacrifices.

Najib is expected to downsize his Cabinet, which now has 27 ministries and 31 ministers.

At present, Umno has 22 ministers, the MCA four, and the MIC, Upko, SUPP, PBB and PBS one each.

The new Cabinet is expected to have between 20 and 24 ministries, with no more than 27 ministers. Several ministries are expected to be merged.

Insiders said the ministries which could be merged are Tourism with Unity, Culture, Arts and Heritage; Education with Higher Education; Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs with International Trade and Industry; and Agriculture and Agro-Based Industries with Plantation Industries and Commodities.

There have also been suggestions that the Federal Territories Ministry be merged with the Housing and Local Government portfolio.

Three ministries – Works; Energy, Water and Communications and Science, Technology and Innovation – could also be merged into two ministries.

This means that seven new ministries will be created from 13 merged ones.

source: href="http://www.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2009/4/9/nation/20090409114244&sec=nation">