France Forms Economic Super-Ministry : Government: Cresson follows Japan’s example and combines portfolios. Five women are named to her Cabinet.

Newly appointed French Prime Minister Edith Cresson named five women to her Cabinet on Thursday and combined economic and industry portfolios to create a super-ministry modeled on the highly successful Japanese Ministry of International Trade and Industry.

Cresson, named Wednesday to be the first woman prime minister in French history, designated Economy Minister Pierre Beregovoy to oversee the new ministry combining the formerly independent ministries of industry, finance, foreign trade, budget and small business. Cresson, 57, has long advocated the creation of such a ministry to help France compete with other countries, particularly Germany and Japan.

The new prime minister left in place the key ministers of foreign affairs (Roland Dumas), education (Lionel Jospin), defense (Pierre Joxe), interior (Philippe Marchand) and culture (Jack Lang). Somewhat more surprisingly, she retained Justice Minister Henri Nallet, who had been under attack recently for failure to prosecute cases of political corruption in the ruling Socialist Party.

Of the five women she named to the Cabinet, three were designated full ministers (labor, Martine Aubry; cooperation and development, Edwige Avice, and youth and sports, Frederique Bredin) and two lower-ranking junior ministers. The Cabinet of outgoing Prime Minister Michel Rocard had no women among its 19 ministers of state and full ministers.

In a speech Wednesday night, French President Francois Mitterrand said he chose Cresson to create a new elan for the government as it nears the 1993 deadline for European economic union. When she quit her previous Cabinet post as minister of European affairs in October, Cresson attacked French industry as being unprepared to face the challenge of competition that the European market will create.

Long a critic of Japanese industrial policy, which she described as a trade “war on the world,” Cresson appeared to borrow a chapter from the Japanese book when she announced the super-ministry late Thursday night. By combining the key economic and industrial ministries under one minister, she hopes to improve France’s ability to react quickly to foreign competition and changing economic forces.