Baku, October 1 (AZERTAC). Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Helen Clark began her visit to Azerbaijan. She gave a briefing to the press on the objectives of the visit at the Heydar Aliyev International Airport. In the briefing, Helen Clark expressed satisfaction for seeing Azerbaijan as a middle-income country and stressed the importance of strengthening strategic cooperation between the UNDP and Azerbaijan.

The purpose of the visit is to further deepen the existing cooperation in the areas of mutual interest and explore new opportunities for innovative partnership between Azerbaijan and UNDP. Helen Clark will attend the 4th Baku International Humanitarian Forum to be held in Baku on 2-3 October 2014 and deliver a speech at the opening ceremony of the event. She will meet with high-level government officials, women politicians, the UN Country Team, and representatives of some of the diplomatic missions in the country.

The UNDP Administrator also plans to visit Symgayit city. She will stop by at the Syslab Center, established in the framework of a joint UNDP and Norwegian Government’s project and the ASAN Service, created by the State Agency for Public Service and Social Innovation, a unique experience that can be shared with other middle-income as well as low-income countries.

Helen Clark became the UNDP Administrator in April 2009, and is the first woman to lead the organization. She is also the Chair of the United Nations Development Group, a committee consisting of the Heads of all UN funds, programmes and departments working on development issues. Prior to her appointment as UNDP Administrator, she had been the Prime Minister of New Zealand, serving from 1999 to 2008. Helen Clark was the first woman elected as the Prime Minister, and was the fifth longest serving person to hold that office. Recognizing her influence as the Head of UNDP agency, Forbes Magazine Helen Clark as one of the world’s 100 most powerful women and “the most powerful woman in the United Nations.”