President Gotabaya Rajapaksa instructed his new cabinet to appoint qualified individuals to run State Owned Enterprises (SOEs) and Government Corporations. Rajapaksa expressed these views following the swearing in ceremony of the interim cabinet at the Presidential Secretariat today. Rajapaksa who highlighted the need to turn SOEs and Corporations into profits centres added that chairpersons and boards of directors should be appointed based on their qualifications and subject matter expertise. He said these individuals will be screened through a selection committee. "Ministers who think certain individuals are capable of  handling these positions can recommend their names to the selection committees," he said. The President further pointed out that unskilled vacancies in ministries must be filled by those of poor families. He added, in the past many of these vacancies were filled by supporters of respective ministers. He noted that this time parliamentarians have the opportunity to send in their recommendation of individuals of such families from their respective electorates to the presidential secretariat. The president also requested Ministers to give their fullest support to state ministers to execute their responsibilities. “We all know that in the past all that certain State Ministers did was practice their signature as they had no powers.”