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resident-elect Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo said that he would keep the current number of ministries but that he would proceed with plans to merge a number of ministries he deemed redundant.

Jokowi said that he had tentatively agreed preliminarily with members of his transition team to maintain the current number of ministries, which stands at 34, despite earlier saying that he would reduce the number of ministries to 27.

'€œWe will consider maintaining the number of ministries at 34. However, nothing is final yet. We still have time to consider other options,'€ Jokowi told reporters Wednesday at City Hall in Central Jakarta.

Vice president-elect Jusuf Kalla, meanwhile, said on Wednesday that he was considering setting up two different ministries to manage the education sector: one that would focus on basic and secondary education and emphasize character-building and culture and another focusing on higher education, research and technology.

Kalla said that with two ministries focused on education, the government hoped that the quality of human resources would improve.

'€œUniversities have to be close with research so they can be active in coordinating research to come up with more applied technologies,'€ he said.

Kalla added that so far research conducted by local universities had not produced significant results.

'€œSo in the future, if we want to know about cancer, we can refer to university A. If we want to know about rice, we can look to university B,'€ he said.

As for primary- and secondary- level education, Kalla said that the ministry would have the job of designing the national curriculum, but that the central government would leave the technical details concerning curriculum implementation to local governments.

Jokowi'€™s transition team also plans to establish a creative economy ministry, an agrarian ministry, a civil ministry and a maritime affairs ministry.

Andi Widjajanto, deputy of the Jokowi-Kalla transition team and in charge of the Cabinet design, said that a civil ministry would have the task of managing civil administration to help reap the benefits from the so-called demographic dividend that is expected to take place between 2025 and 2035.

Andi added that in order to maintain the number of ministries, Jokowi was expected to merge several ministries regulating agriculture, fishery, farming and plantation, into a single ministry of food security.

Furthermore, the Transportation Ministry and the Public Works Ministry would be merged to create a facilities and infrastructure ministry.

Under the new design, of the 34 ministries currently in place, 15 would be re-branded as a result of a merger or a separation.

Among the ministries that Jokowi would keep include the Defense Ministry, the Foreign Affairs Ministry and the Home Ministry '€” all of which are mandated by the law '€” as well as the Finance Ministry, the Religious Affairs Ministry and the Law and Human Rights Ministry, each of which would require permission from the House of Representatives to abolish.

Jokowi is also considering the dissolution of the three current coordinating minister offices, which are the Office of the Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister, the Office of the Coordinating People'€™s Welfare Minister and the Office of the Coordinating Economic Minister.

'€œThe coordinating job[s] will be handled by the president and the vice president themselves,'€ Andi said.