Dubai customs chief: UAE investing heavily in Azerbaijan

By Azernews

By Laman Ismayilova

Today the UAE is investing heavily in Azerbaijan and the Emirates are the fifth largest investor in Azerbaijan, said Ahmed Mahboob Musabih, the Director of Dubai Customs.

Mahboob Musabih, talking to Azertac, said that the two countries enjoy strong friendly ties and maintain fruitful cooperation in many areas.

“The customs bodies of our countries have established close ties, in 2011 an agreement on cooperation was signed. I visited Baku in 2015, where our delegation got acquainted with the developed system of customs service of Azerbaijan. We regularly exchange experience with our Azerbaijani colleagues,” he said.

Mahboob Musabih also noted that Azerbaijan reached a high level of development in all areas.

“The country has modern infrastructure, world-class hotels, an extensive transport network, entertainment centers, many cultural and historical attractions and cultural heritage sites. Azerbaijan has become one of the popular tourist destinations for Arab countries. Another important factor in increasing the tourist flow to Azerbaijan is high-level security and services, which allow tourists to feel comfortable," said Mahboob Musabih.

The United Arab Emirates has invested $778.1 million in the Azerbaijani economy , while Azerbaijan has invested $284.4 million in the UAE. Over 255 UAE companies operate in Azerbaijan.

The trade turnover between Azerbaijan and the UAE declined by 3 percent over the year. Nevertheless, exports from Azerbaijan to the UAE increased by over twofold in the same period.

The Baku-Dubai and Baku-Sharjah flights are currently being operated, while there is also a plan to launch the Baku-Abu Dhabi flight. Following the simplification of the visa regime and introducing the ASAN Visa system, the number of tourists from the UAE visiting Azerbaijan in the past two years increased by 30 times.

Touching upon the initiative of President Ilham Aliyev to declare 2017 a Year of Islamic Solidarity in Azerbaijan, Mahboob Musabih pointed out that this initiative is aimed at strengthening trust, mutual understanding, cooperation and integration between Muslim countries.

“Today, when the Islamic world faces many challenges, such an initiative is very important and significant and Muslim countries need to make every effort to implement it,” he said.

Talking about the upcoming Islamic Games in Baku, Mahboob Musabih said Azerbaijan has a very successful experience in holding many major sporting events such as the First European Games.

Musabih said that the country has created the entire necessary infrastructure for holding such events, voicing confidence that Azerbaijan will excellently host the Fourth Islamic Solidarity Games.

He said that today various sports events strengthen relations between peoples. “The Islamic world needs such sporting events as they are an excellent platform for meetings and communication of people, including youth, which is considered the driving force of future progress,” he said, adding that such events also strengthen youth's universal values such as tolerance and help save young people from destructive and negative ideology based on misanthropy, racism and extremism.

The Baku 2017 Islamic Solidarity Games is an exciting multi-sport event uniting the Islamic world, which will take place from 12 – 22 May 2017.

 Athletes from Islamic countries around the world will be representing their nations in competition across 20 different sports which include 23 disciplines (Athletics and Para Athletics, Aquatics – Diving, Aquatics – Swimming, Aquatics – Water Polo, Basketball 3x3, Football, Gymnastics – Artistic, Gymnastics – Rhythmic, Wushu, Table Tennis, Handball, Judo and Blind Judo, Wrestling – Greco, Wrestling – Freestyle, Shooting, Tennis, Volleyball, Boxing, Zurkhaneh, Karate, Taekwondo and Weightlifting) in 16 modern competition venues in Baku.