3 priorities at the 13th ASEM Customs Directors-General Meeting

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Nguyen Thi Viet Nga talked to the press on the contents of the 13th ASEM Customs Directors- General Meeting in Vietnam. Photo: H. Nu

This is the content presented at the press conference on the organization of the 13th ASEM Directors-General Meeting in Vietnam on October 24th, 2018.

Ms. Nga, Deputy Director of International Cooperation Department under the General Department of Customs, Customs cooperation in ASEM forum is in the process of economic and security dialogue with the main priority of supplementing and enhancing the implementation of the multilateral trading system in the WTO. The working mechanism in the ASEM Customs forum includes an annual meeting of Customs working group and Customs Directors - General Meeting held every two years.

The ASEM Customs Directors- General Meeting plays a role as a forum to orient, direct and guide working groups to carry out action plans under stages approved by the ASEM Customs Directors-General.

The 12th ASEM Customs Directors-General Meeting in 2017 approved the ASEM Customs action plan for the 2018-2019 period, focusing on measures and orientations for cooperation under the priorities which are: trade facilitation and Customs procedures; facilitation for non-paper customs procedures; Customs management of cross-border e-commerce; connection and transit; single window for rapid customs clearance, automated and integrated risk management; fight against counterfeited goods and enforcement of intellectual property rights; border management for international parcels and visions of ASEM prospects, Ms. Nga added.

The implementation of the contents of this action plan is mainly based on the sharing of information, experience and supports by the members as regulators.

According to Ms. Nga, following the ASEM Customs action plan 2018 - 2019, as the host country, Vietnam Customs is going to propose some priorities to be included in the ASEM Customs action plan 2019 - 2020 including: applying industrial revolution 4.0 in enhancing the integration and connection of IT systems to serve the effective customs management; promoting Customs – business partnership and protecting the environment, society, security and facilitating the supply chain.

Emphasizing on these priorities Ms. Nga said that Vietnam Customs expects the ASEM members to discuss and make recommendations, suggestions and initiatives in connection and integration of IT system to perform well the important role of Customs in the import-export management.

In addition, in the context that the Vietnam Customs is implementing the industrial revolution 4.0 and the world is facing some problems on security in the fight against terrorism, and transportation of goods harming the environment and society with increasingly complicated and sophisticated tricks, or the pressure from maintaining the sustainable economic growth and adaptation to climate change, the joint effort to protect the environment and society and secure the supply chain for trade facilitation is more important than ever.

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In order to reach agreements on priorities in the ASEM action plan 2019-2020, Vietnam Customs will also intensify the preparation to contribute to promoting Vietnamese culture and country to friends in the region and in the world, Ms. Nga emphasized.