Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has named parliament speaker Muhammed Naji al-Otri as the country's next prime minister. State news agency, SANA said Otri's appointment came after President Bashar accepted the resignation of the cabinet of Prime Minister Muhammed Mustafa Miro. President al-Assad asked the outgoing government, formed in December 2001 to "quickly complete the outstanding tasks on its agenda until a new government is formed," SANA said. The president had hinted at the change of guard last month, stating that pushing through reforms would be the main task of the new cabinet he planned to form. Wednesday's change of prime minister is the first since al-Assad took office in 2000, succeeding his late father, Hafiz al-Assad.
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Economy Minister Ghassan Rifai had earlier said he wanted to accelerate the pace of economic reform, but added that Syria did not intend to plunge into privatization as it reformed the state-dominant economy. "We need to be faster. We need to be more courageous. We need to cut down on the paperwork," Rifai said. |