PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad and Tobago  President Obama said Saturday that he would soon announce “the elimination of dozens of government programs shown to be wasteful or ineffective,” and he used his weekly radio address to name two new high-level officials to assist him in that effort.

The president said that in his cabinet meeting on Monday  the first time the full body will meet  he would ask department and agency heads to propose specific ways to cut their budgets by eliminating inefficient programs.

Mr. Obama, who is in this island nation for a gathering of leaders of the Western Hemisphere, often uses his weekly address to talk about energy, health care or the economy. On Saturday, he used it to announce the appointments of Jeffrey Zients, a management consultant and entrepreneur, to be chief performance officer, and Aneesh Chopra, Virginia’s secretary of technology, to be chief technology officer.

“If we’re going to rebuild our economy on a solid foundation, we need to change the way we do business in Washington,” Mr. Obama said. “We need to restore the American people’s confidence in their government  that it is on their side, spending their money wisely.”