Azernews.Az

By Amina Nazarli

Visiting Azerbaijan, with rich traditional culture and picturesque nature, has become even easier.

The recent order of President Ilham Aliyev on facilitation of issuance of electronic visas and the establishment of ASAN Viza system will make life easier for many foreigners.

This decision has become a real gift to the citizens of foreign countries who wish to visit Azerbaijan in different purposes.

In connection with the expansion of economic and cultural relations of Azerbaijan and the increasing interest in the country’s tourism sector, simplification of visa procedures for foreigners as relevant today as ever.

So, it is high to wave goodbye to annoying procedures and extending responds, since henceforth foreigners, who are coming in the Land of Fire, do not have to waste time waiting for a visa.

They will be relieved of many bureaucratic procedures, which will undoubtedly have a positive impact on the inflow of foreign guests to Azerbaijan.

The only thing to do, instead of going to the diplomatic mission and talking with foreign officials, is to enter requested details onto "ASAN Viza" and pay the proper stamp duty.

Three days later, the visa will be sent to e-mail of an applicant. It seems that this experience will be a good example for other countries, and soon the Azerbaijani citizens will also have an opportunity not to stand in endless queues at foreign diplomatic missions in Baku.

Inam Karimov, Chairman of the State Agency for Services to Citizens and Social Innovations, said that the Foreign Ministry will determine soon the list of countries to be able to receive e-visa.

“Citizens of the approved countries will be able to get e-visa. Of course, other types of visa issuing will also be valid. Visa issuance will be carried out within three days and will be monitored by the Foreign Ministry. The e-visa will be applied within a short period,” he said.

Earlier in February, the country took another important step to simplify visa by halving electronic visa issuing term, thus decreasing confirmation duration of e-visas from 10 to 5 days. The tourists from the Persian Gulf countries, China, Japan, Korea, Malaysia and Singapore enjoyed simplified visa regime.

Secretary General of the Azerbaijan Tourism Association Muzaffar Agakarimov said that issuing e-visa for three days by ASAN Viza will create an opportunity for attracting more tourists and development of tourism in the country.

“This decision is a green light eliminating difficulties for the guests of the country,” he said.

Agakarimov noted that about five years ago inbound tourism was not as developed as today. However, facilitation of visa procedures leads to development of inbound tourism and economy in total.

About 70 tourism agencies are operating in inbound tourism in Azerbaijan, according to the AzTa’s Secretary General, adding that this decision will also increase the number of agencies, which are expected to reach 100 soon.

Head of EU Delegation in Azerbaijan Malena Mard told Trend that they support the facilitation of visa issuance and establishment of ASAN Viza, estimating the order as "very important".

“The order will create an opportunity of tourist flow to Azerbaijan from the European Union countries. Earlier, this issue was discussed at the EU-Azerbaijan business forum. That’s why I think that ASAN Viza will bring success,” she said.

ASAN, which means “easy” in Azerbaijani, have already attracted the attention of foreign specialists.This mechanism of rendering public and private services from one single space completely exclude any possible negative aspects, which they faced with during the registration of documents before the establishment of ASAN.

The service has created an innovative model of public service delivery, where numerous services by government agencies and private companies are delivered from single physical locations called ASAN Service centers. The uniqueness of ASAN in comparison with other likewise entities in the world is that the State Agency is ensuring the "space", where governmental agencies are directly rendering their own services.

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Amina Nazarli is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @amina_nazarli

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