Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he will cut the number of ministries sharply to 16 and speed up decision-making in the next government if he wins an election on June 24.
"When I was prime minister there were 37 ministries. We reduced this to 26. Now we will lower it to 16," Erdogan said in an interview with ATV.
The president said the number of ministries dealing with the economy will be reduced to 3 from 6. "With the new system we will reduce bureaucracy. We will take decisions faster, all services will be results-oriented," Reuters cited him as saying.
He added that aside from the ministries nine policy boards would be formed, reporting to the president, in areas such as social, health and foreign policy.
Erdogan also said four new offices would be established. "In the first stage, four offices for Human Resources, Investment, Finance and Digital Transformation bear great importance under new model because they are almost the closest staff to the president," he said.
The president also shed light on the new directorates to be established under the new model.
"There are directorates to be affiliated to the presidency, and eight directorates are at stake here," Erdoğan said, naming them as the Directorate of General Staff, Directorate of National Intelligence, Directorate of Defense Industry, National Security Council, Directorate of Religious Affairs, State Supervisory Council, Directorate of Communication and Directorate of Strategy and Budget.
