President Bashar al-Assad issued Decree No. 91 of 2023 stipulating a government amendment that includes five ministers. The decree stipulates naming Firas Hassan Kaddour as Minister of Oil and Mineral Resources, Mohsen Abdel Karim Ali as Minister of Internal Trade and Consumer Protection, Abdel Qader Jokhadar as Minister of Industry, and Luay Imad al-Din al-Munajjid as Minister of Affairs. Social and Labor, Ahmed Bustahji, Minister of State, and the decree finalized the naming of Muhammad Fayez Al-Barsha as Minister of State.
The new Minister of Internal Trade and Consumer Protection, Mohsen Abdel-Karim, was born in Kafrdabil- Lattakia in 1968 and holds a law degree from the University of Damascus in 2004. He held the position of Director General of the General Organization for Internal Trade for Metals and Building Materials “Omran” from 2014 to date, and previously held The position of Director General of the Consumer Corporation from 2007 to 2012, and Director of the Social Military Corporation Branch in Baniyas, Tartous Governorate, from 1995 to 1999, and Director of the Halbouni Branch in Damascus from 1999 to 2001, and Director of the Materials Directorate at the Omran Corporation from 2005 to 2007, and he was also a consultant At the Presidency of the Council of Ministers from 2012 to 2014, and was appointed as a member of the Board of Directors of the Damascus Chamber of Commerce in 2015.
The new Minister of Oil, Firas Hasan Kaddour, was born in the countryside of Damascus in 1962. He holds a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering, specializing in machine-building technology.
Chairman and General Manager of the Al-Furat Oil Company in 2015, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Deir Ezzor Oil Company in 2008, and Director of Technical Support for the Al-Furat Oil Company in 2004. He also held the position of Assistant Director of Technical Affairs for the Syrian Oil Company in 2002.
As for the Minister of Industry, Abdelkader Joukdar, he was born in Aleppo in 1968. He graduated from the University of Aleppo, Faculty of Electrical and Electronic Engineering. He holds a PhD in Intelligent Control Systems, University of Aberdeen, Royal College of Electronic Engineering, Britain, in 1999. He held the position of Dean of the Faculty of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, University of Aleppo 2019-2020. Vice Dean of the Faculty of Electrical and Electronic Engineering for Scientific Affairs, University of Aleppo 2015-2019. Head of the Mechatronics Engineering Department 2009-2013.
As for the Minister of Social Affairs and Labor, Louay Imad Al-Din Al-Munajjid, he held the position of advisor to the Presidency of the Council of Ministers and the studies of the Economic Committee, and he is an expert in the evaluation team of the tenth five-year plan and the preparation of the eleventh five-year plan. A committee to study the Public-Private Partnership Law (PPP), a member of the Public Industrial Reorganization Law Committee, a founding member of the Syrian Competitiveness Observatory, and a principal consultant contracted with a number of international and regional organizations.
As for the Minister of State, Ahmed Muhammad Bustahji, he is a member of the People’s Assembly, born in the city of Idlib, and a graduate of the Faculty of Law at the University of Damascus. He was appointed as a state lawyer at the Ministry of Justice for ten years, and worked as a lawyer at the Bar Association – Idlib branch, and a member of the Council of the Bar Association branch in Idlib. Member of the Central Committee of the Unified Syrian Communist Party and member of its Political Bureau.
He was elected a member of the Idlib Governorate Council for more than one session, then a member of the People’s Assembly.