Mubarak names Nadhif as Egyptian premier
Egyptian President Husni Mubarak has formally asked his outgoing communication minister, Ahmad Nadhif, to form a new government.
Nadhif is a computer expert who has introduced information technology to Egypt’s notorious sprawling bureaucracy.
The seventh premier of Muburak’s presidency, Nadhif will be the first prime minister since 1987 with no training in economics or business.
Aljazeera’s correspondent in Cairo says Nadhif is expected to bring in younger ministers to replace the ageing cabinet led by his predecessor.
Mubarak expressed his thanks to the outgoing premier, Atif Ubaid, and to members of his government for their work, state television announced on Friday.
Ubaid resigned from the government he had headed since 1999 earlier on Friday evening.
He had been widely criticised for failing to revive a struggling economy and overseeing a slide in the value of Egypt’s currency. But he now becomes an economic adviser to Mubarak.
Promoting internet
Since taking up the post of communications and information minister in 1999, the 52-year-old Nadhif has worked to bring a computer and free internet service to every Egyptian home and introduce “electronic government” in state institutions.
Born in 1952, he graduated from Cairo University in 1973 with a degree in engineering.
He obtained a masters degree in electrical engineering in 1976 from the same university and a doctorate in computer engineering from McGill University in Canada in 1983.
Nadhif served in a number of positions before joining the Ubaid cabinet.
This included a stint as a professor at the faculty of engineering at Cairo University and as executive manager of the cabinet’s information centre.
He is married and has two children.