Azerbaijan reduces work permit fee for Turkish citizens

The cost of work permits for Turkish citizens wanting to work in Azerbaijan will be reduced to $50 from $1,270, as announced by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan in a joint press conference Wednesday with Azeri President Ilham Aliyev.

Erdogan and Aliyev also stressed that they will work towards simplifying the visa procedures for businessmen, students and scientists .

"Solving issues like this so easily shows the brotherly links between the two states," Aliyev said on his first foreign trip to Turkey after securing his third five-year term as president last month.  Aliyev reiterated that Turkey was "traditionally" the first country a newly-elected president visits. 

Erdogan aims for a doubling in trade volume between the two countries in the next seven years - up from the current level of $4.2 billon a year to $15 billion a year by 2020.

Aliyev touched on the Trans-Anatolian Gas Pipeline (TANAP) project, - to supply gas to Europe from Azerbaijan through Turkey due to be completed by 2018 - stating that it is one of the "greatest energy projects in the world". 

Aliyev added, "The 21st century will be the century of the Turkic world."

Praising Turkey for overcoming serious financial difficulties in the last ten years, the Azeri president said, "Turkey is amongst the powerful countries in the world; without Turkey's consent, no project can be realized in the region."ANN.Az