Briefing on the visit of Mr Koichiro Matsuura, Director General of UNESCO
On September 9th, the ZEF project in Uzbekistan was paid a visit by his excellency Mr. Koichiro Matsuura (Director General of UNESCO). The DG was accompanied by Mr. Rustam Kosimov (Deputy Prime-Minister of Uzbekistan), Mr. Alisher Karimov (Chairperson of the National Commission of Uzbekistan for UNESCO), Mr. M. Barry Lane (Head of UNESCO Tashkent, UNESCO Representative to Uzbekistan), Mr. Vladimir Kouchnirenko (Liasion Officer in the Asia-Pacific Section of the Sector for External Relations and Cooperation, Unesco) and Ms Krista Pikkat (Executive Officer, Office of the DG, UNESCO HQ).
Mr. Matsuura, a Japanese citizen, paid Uzbekistan a visit for the third time since his nomination as DG of UNESCO. His visit schedule made it possible to be become familiar with the various project activities of UNESCO in Uzbekistan including the jointly executed ZEF/UNESCO project in Khorezm province entitled “Economic and Ecological Restructuring of land and water use in the Khorezm Region of Uzbekistan: A pilot project in Development Research”. During his 2-hour visit to the premises of the project and its partner the State University of Urgench (UrDU), the DG and his companions enjoyed a presentation by the ZEF project coordinator in Urgench.
The visitors were shown the office and laboratory facilities as well as assisted a demonstration on the extraction of indigo out of freshly harvested Indigofera tinctoria, a natural dye used for the coloring of rugs and carpets in Uzbekistan workshops.
Mr. Matsuura presented a 20 minutes speech on Education for Sustainable Development to the scientific council of UrDu in which he underlined the importance of education at all levels to shape the world of tomorrow. He in particular praised the ZEF/UNESCO project as an example of such an approach since the teaching and learning aspects engrained in the ZEF/UNESCO project seeks to blend the human and economic well-being with socio-cultural traditions and focus concurrently on the conservation of land and water resources in the Aral Sea Basin.
Next, Mr. Matsuura paid a visit to Khiva, a main city in Khorezm, which is the largest center of international tourism in the region. The ancient capital of Khiva, today a UNESCO heritage site, celebrated its annually recurring open-air festival. In addition, Mr. Matsuura opened the restored ancient library of the Mahmum academy in Khiva. Khiva has been a center of Arab culture, and Khorezm has produced illustrious figures in the history of science, such as Al-Khorezmi (the father of Algebra) or Al-Beruni (a mathematician and astronomer). At both occasions Mr. Matsuura and the deputy Prime-Minister Dr. Kasimov underlined the involvement of the ZEF project in the development of tourism and science and education in this most troubled region. The visit was broadcasted the same evening on the regional and national tv stations.
