M'sian PM Anwar unveils new cabinet, including new trade & economy minister

Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim unveiled his new cabinet lineup on Dec. 16, with a new trade and investment minister and economy minister.

Anwar’s cabinet has been faced with several vacancies in recent months, as ministers and allies have left or been required to quit the cabinet.

Liberation day

Perhaps most notable is the appointment of Johari Abdul Ghani as the new Investment, Trade, and Industry Minister.

He takes over from Tengku Zafrul Abdul Aziz, who was required to leave the cabinet as he had completed his second and final allowed term as a Senator in the Malaysian Parliament’s upper house.

Tengku Zafrul first came to the cabinet under the premiership of Muhyiddin Yassin as Minister of Finance, appointed to the Senate as a member of coalition partner UMNO.

When UMNO joined with Anwar’s Pakatan Harapan government in 2022, he was appointed to the trade portfolio.

He has led the Malaysian government’s response to United States President Donald Trump’s “liberation day” tariffs, culminating in an agreement that saw the country’s tariff rate go from 24 per cent to 17 per cent, with significant carve-outs for individual industries like semiconductors and pharmaceuticals.

However, the trade agreement has garnered much criticism from individuals such as former PM Mahathir Mohamad and some Malaysian Think Tanks.

His replacement, Johari Ghani, is described by Bernama as “bringing extensive corporate and financial experience” to the role and comes from an accounting background.

The 61-year-old is also described as a “turnaround specialist, having notably rescued several major companies, such as KFC holdings in the 1990s.

New economic policymaker

Also notable is the replacement of former Anwar ally Rafizi Ramli by Akmal Nasrullah Mohd Nasir as Economy Minister.

Rafizi quit the cabinet in June 2025 after failing to retain his deputy president position during party leadership elections, losing to Anwar’s daughter Nurrul Izza Anwar, and has since started a podcast about Malaysian government policy.

Rafizi was joined in leaving by Environment Minister Nik Nazmi, who has been replaced by Arthur Joseph Kurup.

Another notable shuffle is that of Youth and Sports Minister Hannah Yeoh, an Anwar ally from the Democratic Action Party, who has now been appointed the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, overseeing the federal territories, such as Putrajaya and Kuala Lumpur.

She takes over from Zaliha Mustafa, who notably led recovery efforts after the August 2024 sinkhole incident in KL.

Yeoh is replaced by the 29-year-old Mohd Taufiq Johari, becoming the second minister in his twenties to helm the ministry in the past decade, the other being Syed Saddiq in 2018.

Top image via Anwar Ibrahim/Facebook