New­ly ap­point­ed Plan­ning Min­is­ter Kennedy Swarats­ingh be­gan his du­ties on May 5 by meet­ing se­nior staff at the Min­istry of Plan­ning, Eco­nom­ic Af­fairs and De­vel­op­ment.

For­mer­ly the Min­istry of Plan­ning and De­vel­op­ment, the re­brand­ed min­istry now in­cludes eco­nom­ic af­fairs and na­tion­al de­vel­op­ment.

Swarats­ingh met with Per­ma­nent Sec­re­tary Aar­ti Be­dassie-Ma­haraj, deputy sec­re­taries, and de­part­ment heads to dis­cuss the min­istry’s up­com­ing work pro­gramme.

He said he in­tends to fo­cus on com­plet­ing projects ef­fi­cient­ly while sup­port­ing na­tion­al growth.

Key pri­or­i­ties in­clude the en­vi­ron­ment, agri­cul­ture, da­ta, spa­tial plan­ning, and cy­ber se­cu­ri­ty across all min­istries.