Baku, March 21 (AZERTAC). Visiting Azerbaijan Director-General of UNESCO Koichiro Matsuura gave an interview to the Azerbaijani Television.

AZERTAC presents the full transcript of the interview:

- Mr. Matsuura, welcome to Azerbaijan. We greet you on behalf of the Azerbaijan Television and thank you for finding time to meet us. You are a frequent guest in our country. How did you find Baku this time? And what can you say about development of the country in general?

- I made my first visit to Azerbaijan 9 years ago as Director-General of UNESCO on the invitation of the then President of the Republic Heydar Aliyev on the occasion of 1300th anniversary of the Kitabi Dede Gorgud. I enjoyed my participating in the event, and of course, turned around Baku. I came back in 2005 and 2008. In general, I visited Azerbaijan four times. Each time I came here I have noticed with pleasure improvements in the country`s infrastructure, including in the construction sector. Azerbaijan`s economy has been growing with dynamic ratio of more than 20% in recent years. This shows itself in improvements in the infrastructure. The most impressive fact is that according to the World Bank statistics, percentage of people living in poverty in Azerbaijan has been reduced from 49% to 13%. In the past, almost half of population in Azerbaijan was living in poverty. And this figure is now a little bit more than 10%. Enormous work was done to eliminate poverty.

- UNESCO has close cooperation with President of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation, MP Mehriban Aliyeva, and a variety of events were held in UNESCO headquarters in Paris dealing with Azerbaijan, Azerbaijani writers, scientists. What is your opinion about this cooperation?

-I am also very happy about steady progress we are making in strengthening bilateral cooperation between Azerbaijan and UNESCO in many areas. Broadly speaking we are making great progress in strengthening cooperation in two core areas: culture and education. That is, when I came here in April 2000, there were no works carried out in this field. But now you have two world sites. The Old City in the center of Baku, and Gobustan. Of course, the number of such sites will grow. We have also one intangible masterpiece - mugham. You have now three important elements in the cultural heritage list of UNESCO. This is something that people of Azerbaijan should be proud of. In addition, you have advanced in contemporary arts - paintings, writings. Yesterday I opened a museum of contemporary arts together with President Ilham Aliyev and madam Aliyeva. I was quite impressed by the structure of the museum, it reflects contemporary art. And also I was quite impressed by numbers of impressive works of art done by contemporary artists of Azerbaijan.

- The Heydar Aliyev Foundation renders its support to many countries to help them recover from natural calamities. And an agreement was signed a few days ago between UNESCO and the Heydar Aliyev Foundation on achieving strategic preservation of intangible cultural heritage. What can say about it?

- I have repeatedly mentioned the enormous progress made in bilateral cooperation between Azerbaijan and UNESCO. Cooperation between Azerbaijan and UNESCO is progressing at regional levels and international levels, in particular thanks to the initiatives of madam Aliyeva who is UNESCO`s goodwill ambassador. She is in particular interested in promoting and safeguarding intangible heritage, namely traditional dances, folk music like mugham, and traditional ceremonies like Nowruz. Two days ago madam Aliyeva and I signed here a new agreement. In particular, she expressed, as President of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation, the foundation`s readiness to extend help to African countries in the context of preserving intangible heritage. I appreciate it enormously, because African countries, in particular Southern African ones do need international help.

- In 2009 Azerbaijan was declared the capital of the Islamic culture. And our capital city is hosting numerous international events in this capacity. The international mugham festival is amongst them. Please share your views about the festival.

- I am so happy to participate in opening of the international mugham festival at the new mugham center together with President Aliyev and madam Aliyeva. The festival brought together experts on mugham from a number of countries. Mugham is definitely very important cultural tradition of Azerbaijan. There are mugham experts in various parts of the world - Europe, Asia. As far as I know, experts from about more than 20 countries have gathered in Baku in order to discuss how to preserve the important value of mugham.

- The International Mugham Center that you once inaugurated together with the Head of State today hosts an international festival. In short, you have close cooperation with the President. It would be interesting for us to hear your comments.

- I came here for my first visit in April 2000 on the invitation of Heydar Aliyev. I met current President Ilham Aliyev, at that time he was heading the SOCAR. We had a very frank conversation, and then I met him in my headquarters in Paris in 2004. When I came here in 2005, he welcomed me as the President of Azerbaijan. Since that time we met here in Baku, in Paris, in New York and in Moscow. I have met him almost ten times, and we always had a very frank exchange of views, because I think he is a very clever and talented person of his country. He is appreciated not only nationally, but also regionally and internationally.

- How do you see prospects of the Azerbaijan-UNESCO cooperation?

- It is very, very good. Well, I mentioned our cooperation in cultural heritage. And very important cooperation is in the field of education. I came here in 2005 in order to attend the symposium on the reform of education system in Azerbaijan initiated by Mehriban Aliyeva. Since then UNESCO started collaborating very closely with government of Azerbaijan in promoting very important reform on education system. President Ilham Aliyev has always told me that education is the basis of the nation-building and that Azerbaijan`s education system must be reformed. I highly appreciate his attention to education. Education is crucial for the society of Azerbaijan, and education is also very important in human life for individuals. And education is also very important investment in human resources. Education is multi-sided. I am so happy President Aliyev attaches great attention to this field.

- Your visit coincides with the nationwide festivities on the occasion of Nowruz holiday which you also joined. What are your impressions?

- It was so impressive to participate in these festivities, I enjoyed very much folk dances and music, and also samples of applied arts. I have to mention that, in accordance with the 2003 Convention, Azerbaijan together with Iran, India and other neighbor countries offers to include Nowruz in the list of intangible heritage masterpieces. I believe Azerbaijan will achieve this goal.

- Mr. Matsuura thanks a lot for the interesting interview.

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