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Ivory Coast's president seeks 'more efficient' government
Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara speaks during his inauguration ceremony at the Presidential Palace in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, November 3, 2015. PHOTO BY REUTERS/Luc Gnago
06/01/2016
ABIDJAN (Reuters) - Ivory Coast's President Alassane Ouattara accepted the resignation of his government on Wednesday and prepared to select a new administration in a sign of his political strength after a landslide election victory.
It is common practice in the region for re-elected leaders to start afresh rather than reshuffling their previous government. Ouattara promised to reduce poverty and has called for ethnic and political reconciliation after a decade of political crisis.
He was elected to a second five-year term in October with nearly 84 percent of the vote in a poll intended to resolve almost a decade of crisis, capped by a civil war in 2011.
Ivory Coast is French-speaking Africa's largest economy and the world's top cocoa grower, but many of its people complain that they have not shared in wealth generated by economic growth rates of around 9 percent in each of the past three years.
While more jobs are available and the minimum salary has increased, the cost of living remains high.
Shortly after his election in October, Ouattara promised the benefits of the boom would be shared more widely, and a poverty reduction plan was announced in December. reconciliation.
"We have started a new mandate that must mark a new departure in the direction of state affairs," Ouattara said in a meeting attended by the media on Wednesday.
"The establishment of a new government will have better coherence as a goal so the government can be more efficient."
The new government will be announced next Wednesday, spokesman Bruno Kone told journalists.
(Reporting by Loucoumane Coulibaly; Writing by Makini Brice; Editing by Ruth Pitchford)
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