Cementing further the cordial relations between India and United Arab Emirates, an Odia artist, Mona Biswarupa Mohanty, from Odisha’s Mayurbhanj district, received UAE’s coveted “golden visa” or long-term residence visa for 10 years.

This “golden visa” is a long-term cultural visa and is granted to talents in the fields of arts, creative industries, literature and culture, heritage history and cognitive studies.

The visa allows the foreigners to live, work and study in the West Asian country without the requirements of a national sponsor and with 100 per cent ownership of their business on the UAE’s mainland.

The Chief Minister of Odisha, Naveen Patnaik, in his tweet, congratulated Mohanty on getting the “golden visa”.

The tweet reads: “Congratulate Mona Biswarupa Mohanty@MonaBiswarupa, an artist from Mayurbhanj, on becoming the first Odia artist to receive UAE's coveted #GoldenVisa, a long-term residence visa for 10 years. Her remarkable achievement will inspire others to excel in various fields globally.”

Congratulate Mona Biswarupa Mohanty @MonaBiswarupa, an artist from Mayurbhanj, on becoming the first Odia artist to receive UAE's coveted #GoldenVisa, a long-term residence visa for 10 years. Her remarkable achievement will inspire others to excel in various fields globally.

— Naveen Patnaik (@Naveen_Odisha) June 30, 2021

It was in 2019 that the UAE implemented the new system, in which these visas are issued for five or 10 years and renewed automatically. Mohanty is the first Odia artist to receive the UAE’s golden visa, according to a statement.

Mohanty has been residing in Dubai since 2007 and worked in the academic field and in the design industry for about eight years.

A self-employed art practitioner, Mohanty is registered with the Dubai Economic Department. She has a diploma in fine arts from the School of Art and Crafts, Baripada, apart from bachelors and masters degrees.

Reacting to the grant of the “golden visa”, Mohanty said: “A long-term residency gives me an opportunity for a more meaningful cultural exchange and possibilities of working on collaborative projects with other artists.”

She went on to add: “I see this as an opportunity to represent my country and culture and mingle with other cultures to contribute to the ever-growing global cultural heritage,” she told news agency PTI.