Maldives has become a second home, says United Nations Resident Coordinator and UNDP’s Resident Representative to the Maldives, Shoko Noda, during her farewell call on President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih.

At the meeting held on Sunday, President Solih expressed his appreciation “for all the important work the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) has done over the past several decades and continues to do in the present, in terms of progressing the Maldives’ socio-economic development,” and thanked Shoko “in particular for the initiative and passion she has brought to the UNDP’s work within the Maldives during her time as the country’s Resident Coordinator.”

Thanking the president, she congratulated him and his government on their overwhelming victory in the parliamentary elections and highlighted that “it reflects the strong support the Maldivian people vested in his administration’s legislative agenda.”

Emphasizing that the upcoming parliament, where the main ruling Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) secured 65 votes, would “allow the government to fully deliver on all of its pledges,” Shoko noted that the country “is on a positive trajectory in terms of consolidating the rights and freedoms guaranteed in the 2008 Constitution.”

She added that “the future of [Maldives] looks bright.”

Noting that it has been a “pleasure” to have worked in the Maldives, the UN resident coordinator highlighted that it “in many ways has become a second home.”

She also called on Foreign Minister Abdulla Shahid on Sunday, and thanked the government and the people “for the warm hospitality extended.”

She also congratulated the minister for the government’s “commitment to fulfilling its human rights obligations.”

Appreciating Shoko’s “exemplary discharge of her duties,” Minister Shahid commended her for her “constructive engagement with the government and the opposition alike.”

Shoko Noda has paid farewell calls on a number of government officials, and political parties. She also met with opposition Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM) last week.

While she joined the United Nations two decades ago, Shoko was appointed as Maldives resident coordinator in October 2014. Her tenure will end on April 30.