Visa-on-arrival facility draws UAE residents to Azerbaijan

Consul general shares insights about bilateral ties in terms of culture, tourism and trade

The number of UAE residents visiting Azerbaijan has doubled over the past two months and is expected to increase further since the visaon-arrival facility was introduced in July, a diplomat said.

“The visa-upon-arrival policy started on July 26. Since then, the flow of tourists from the UAE to Azerbaijan has increased two-fold,” Javidan Huseynov, Consul General of Azerbaijan to the UAE, told Gulf News, without revealing the exact figures.

“UAE residents can now easily organise trips to Azerbaijan and can obtain a tourist visa at the airport in Baku as well as at other airports of Azerbaijan,” he said.

Currently, direct flights to Baku from Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Sharjah have reached 30 per week, Huseynov said.

An estimated 7,000 Azerbaijani expatriates are living in the UAE, mostly in Dubai. Some 10 per cent of them are engaged in the public sector, while the rest are working in tourism, education, hospitality and media, or are running their own businesses.

Azerbaijan exports foodstuffs, fruits and vegetables, nuts, car parts and combustion engines to the UAE and imports electrical appliances, vehicles and spare parts, chemicals, lubricants, construction materials and accessories and pipes from the UAE.

The trade turnover with Azerbaijan in 2017 was approximately $221 million (Dh811 million), Huseynov said, quoting figures from the Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

A trade office will be inaugurated in Dubai by the end of the year to further facilitate trade. “A trade representative has already been appointed. This new step is aimed at the promotion of Azerbaijan products and goods in the UAE,” Huseynov said.

And just as 2018 is being celebrated as the Year of Zayed in the UAE, Azerbaijan is this year commemorating the 100th anniversary of its founding as a democratic republic. “It was the first democratic republic with a parliamentary form of government in the East and in the Muslim world. Although the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic existed for 23 months, it managed to do a lot during that time,” Huseynov said.

It was also in that period when Baku State University was founded and the Azerbaijan language was adopted in all educational institutions.

Azerbaijan was led to independence for the second time in 1991 by its national icon, Heydar Aliyev. The current president is his son Ilham Aliyev.

UAE residents can now easily organise trips to Azerbaijan and can obtain a tourist visa at the airport in Baku as well as at other airports of Azerbaijan.” Javidan Huseynov | Consul General of Azerbaijan to UAE