New Qatar cabinet names woman

Qatar's ruler reshaped the cabinet to name a woman as top health official and create an environment ministry in the gas-exporting nation but kept key positions including energy, foreign affairs and finance unchanged.

The Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani expanded the cabinet headed by Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim Al-Thani to include 20 ministers compared with 14 in the previous government, a decree published by the official Qatari News Agency (QNA) showed.

The reshuffle introduced seven new portfolios, replaced one minister and changed the portfolio of another.

One of the newcomers is a woman, a member of the ruling family, who was appointed as health minister. Her appointment increases the number of women ministers to two.

Qatar is a conservative Gulf Arab state, where tribal and Islamic traditions limit the role of women.

Energy Minister Abdullah Al-Attiyah kept his position at the helm of the OPEC exporter's large oil and gas industry. Qatar, which relies heavily on energy revenue, is the largest exporter of liquefied natural gas.

Youssef Kamal kept the portfolios of finance and economy in the Gulf nation struggling with near record inflation, but the commerce ministry which he oversaw in the previous cabinet was given to a member of the ruling family.

The new ministries introduced in the decree include a ministry for environment, another for culture and a third for international cooperation.

Qatar, which hosts hundreds of thousands of guest workers, said on Thursday its population had almost doubled since 2004 to more than 1.4 million.

Qatar, like fellow Gulf Arab nations, relies heavily on foreign labourers to power a construction boom and energy industry expansions.

The economy of Qatar, like in other Gulf oil exporting nations, is booming on an almost seven-fold increase in crude oil prices since 2002. In April Qatar produced 830,000 barrels per day in April according to a Reuters survey. (Reuters)

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