ABU DHABI — The newly reconstituted Cabinet of the United Arab Emirates held an in-person meeting on Monday for the first time after a series of virtual meetings last month over coronavirus fears, state news agency WAM reported. The Cabinet meeting was chaired by Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the UAE's vice president and prime minister and ruler of Dubai, who said at the beginning of the meeting that the Cabinet would be returning to work in August instead of September as previously scheduled due to "exceptional circumstances." Stressing the importance of the economy, Sheikh Mohammed said: "We approved 33 initiatives presented to us by the new economy minister and established a committee to follow up on implementation.'' "We restructured a number of councils and issued new appointments. We discussed the government's structure for the upcoming period and the most important new changes to keep pace with the priorities of the next stage," Sheikh Mohammed added. The Cabinet later approved the restructuring of the ministerial development council chaired by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, UAE's deputy premier and minister of presidential affairs. The establishment of the Public Budget Committee chaired by Sheikh Hamdan Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, deputy ruler of Dubai and minister of finance was approved in the Cabinet meeting. The Cabinet also approved the new structure of the education council chaired by Sheikh Abdullah Bin Zayed Al Nahyan.
