UNDP administrator to visit Russia

UNDP (United Nations Development Program) administrator Mark Mallock Brown is to visit Russia February 14-18 at the invitation of this country's Government. This was disclosed to RIA-NOVOSTI here today at the Russian Foreign Ministry.

Mr. Mallock Brown is to negotiate with this country's Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov, State Duma Speaker Boris Gryzlov, as well as Deputy Prime Ministers, Ministers and the Mayor of Moscow, the Foreign Ministry report reads in part. (The State Duma is the Russian Parliament's lower house - Ed.) Mallock Brown is to visit the Bryansk region in the Central federal district, assessing the implementation of a UNDP project to support the Radimichi rehabilitation center for children, the document goes on to say.

The UNDP administrator is to negotiate with top officials in charge of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Businessmen, as well as chief executive officers of Russian companies helping implement the UN Secretary-General's initiative called the global agreement on universal values and principles, the Russian Foreign Ministry reports.

Mallock Brown last visited Russia in the summer of 2003, meeting the national leadership; moreover, he attended the St. Petersburg economic forum as the UN Secretary-General's envoy.

UNDP now implements about 50 projects in more than one-third of the Russian Federation's 89 constituent members, supporting democratization processes, streamlining the administration-and-management system, propping up small and medium-size businesses, protecting the environment and developing the North Caucasian region.

$15 million worth of donations were allocated for these purposes. UNDP renders non-politicized and gratis aid, with the Government of Russia determining specific aid parameters.