New Ministers Assume Offices in New Government

The new ministers from the recently elected government chaired by PM Dimitar Kovacevski assumed their respective offices on Monday. At a solemn ceremony at the Defence Ministry, outgoing Defence Minister Radmila Sekerinska officially surrendered the office to new Defence Minister Slavjanka Petrovska, who thanked Sekerinska for all her achievements in the field of defence so far, especially the integration of North Macedonia in NATO. Sekerinska said she is leaving the post with pride and satisfaction with her achievements, and wished Petrovska good luck. Bekim Sali assumed the office of Health Minister on Monday from outgoing Health Minister Venko Filipce. Sali said he will do all in his power to properly deal with all challenges in the healthcare sector, especially the COVID-19 pandemic, while Filipce said that he managed to realise quite good results in the past few years and that he will proceed to work in the healthcare sector. Also on Monday, Nikola Tupancevski took over the office of Justice Minister from Bojan Maricic, who has been appointed in the new government as Deputy PM for European Affairs. Maricic said that he is leaving behind him successes like the implementation of the programmes for reforms in the judiciary for the period 2017-2022, and voiced hope that Tupancevski will continue its implementation. Deputy PM for Fighting Corruption in the previous government Ljupco Nikolovski took over the office of Agriculture Minister from Trajan Dimkovski, an office he used to occupy already between 2017 and 2020. Nikolovski said that he will continue to implement the good policies in the sector of agriculture and rural development, with intention to increase the financial support for these sectors in future. Nikolovski is to be replaced as Deputy PM for Fighting Corruption, Sustainable Development and Human Resources by Slavica Grkovska. Minister of Information Society and Administration in the previous government Jeton Shaqiri has now assumed office of Minister for Education and Science, replacing Mila Carovska, while his old position will be taken by Admirim Aliti. Also on Monday, Jovana Trencevska took over from Jagoda Sahpaska the office of Minister of Labour and Social Policy. Trencevska said that one of her greatest priorities will be protection of social rights and rights of workers, securing payment of pensions regularly and on time and care for the children and all citizens with any forms of disabilities. Several ministers from the previous cabinet kept their positions in the current one: Artan Grubi as First Deputy PM and Minsiter of Political System, Fatmir Bytyqi as Deputy PM for Economic Affairs, Bujar Osmani as Foreign Affairs Minister, Oliver Spasovski as Interior Minister, Fatmir Besimi as Finance Minister, Kreshnik Bekteshi as Economy Minister, Naser Nuredini as Environment Minister and Goran Milevski as Local Self-government Minister.