ABU DHABI - The United Arab Emirates named a new energy minister and its first ever woman minister, also creating a ministry for the presidency, in a cabinet reshuffle announced Monday night, its first in seven years.
A UAE source close to official thinking stressed that the oil-rich country would continue to cooperate with efforts to stabilize world crude markets and meet rising demand after naming Mohammad bin Dhaen al-Hamli as energy minister.
The cabinet reshuffle saw Sheikha Lubna al-Qassemi, a US-educated businesswoman in her forties, take over as economy and planning minister, the first woman to hold a ministerial post in the Gulf federation of seven emirates.
A business administration graduate from California State University, Qassemi was named head of a new department combining the formerly separate economy and planning ministries as part of the changes decreed by President Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan al-Nahayan.
Other key changes in the government, which remains under UAE Deputy President and ruler of the affluent emirate of Dubai Sheikh Maktoum bin Rashed al-Maktoum, include the creation of a "ministry for presidency affairs."
The portfolio went to Sheikh Mansur bin Zayed al-Nahayan, one of the president's sons who had hitherto served as his chief of staff and already had ministerial rank. He now becomes a full cabinet member.
Another son of Sheikh Zayed, Saif, was elevated from interior ministry undersecretary to interior minister. A third son, Hamdan, remains deputy prime minister and minister of state for foreign affairs, effectively in charge of foreign policy despite the presence of a foreign minister, Rashed Abdullah al-Nuaimi, who was unchanged.
The cabinet shuffle, reported by the state WAM news agency, also made the UAE the first member of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) to put a minister in charge of GCC affairs at a time when the six-member bloc is trying to move toward economic integration.
Sheikh Fahem bin Sultan al-Qassemi, who was economy minister before the reshuffle and a one-time secretary general of the GCC (grouping Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and Saudi Arabia alongside the UAE) will now handle GCC affairs as well as those of the country's ruling Supreme Council.
The defense portfolio remains with Sheikh Mohammad bin Rashed al-Maktoum, crown prince of Dubai and the driving force behind the emirate's multi-billion-dollar bid to become the region's business and leisure hub.
Sheikh Nahayan bin Mubarak al-Nahayan remains in charge of education at the head of a ministry now combining a full range of education-related fields previously overseen by two ministries.
The information ministry remains under the stewardship of Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed al-Nahayan, and Ali bin Abdullah al-Kaabi was given the labor and social affairs brief in the 21-member cabinet, succeeding Hmaid al-Tayer, who was dropped.
It was the first reshuffle since March 1997.
The UAE "will continue to abide by its commitments toward OPEC and related production quota agreements," the Emirati source said after Hamli replaced Obeid bin Saif al-Nassiri at the head of a new ministry of energy combining the ministry of oil and mineral resources, formerly headed by Nassiri, and the electricity and water ministry.
"The UAE will also continue to cooperate with joint efforts by producers to stabilize world oil markets and meet rising demand," the source said, requesting anonymity.
OPEC member UAE currently produces about 2.5 million barrels of oil per day (bpd). It has an OPEC quota of 2.356 million bpd, amounting to 8.7 percent of the cartel's official output.
Outgoing oil minister Nassiri said last month that the UAE was pumping at near its maximum levels at a time when prices have climbed to record highs of over 50 dollars a barrel. He said Abu Dhabi planned to boost capacity by one million bpd by 2006.
Hamli, 51, is an oil industry veteran who currently sits on the UAE's Supreme Petroleum Council and was the country's governor in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries from 1994 to 2002.
A newcomer to the government, he is board chairman or member of several companies and graduated with an advanced management degree from Harvard Business School.
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