Ministries cutting costs

The ministries of transport, interior, agriculture and defence will be most severely affected by the government’s austerity package in 2011, the CTK news agency reported Friday. The transport ministry will have to operate on a 10-billion-crown lower budget, the interior will get 8 billion crowns less than this year and the ministries of agriculture and defence will have to take 5 billion crown cuts each. Cabinet members have been given until next Friday to outline ways of implementing the reductions. The Foreign Ministry has already announced plans to lay-off over a hundred employees and close down six embassies.