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Director General of Customs Nguyen Van Can

On the occasion of the 73rd anniversary of the establishment of Vietnam Customs (10/9 / 1945-10 / 9/2018), General Director of Customs Nguyen Van Can had a talk with the Customs newspaper on the strong movement by Vietnam Customs on the construction and development process.

Reform and companion with enterprises

As the leader of the Customs sector, the Director General Nguyen Van Can has always directed the whole sector to simultaneously perform both tasks of trade facilitation and improvement for management efficiency. That direction was concretized in the results from all professional fields over the past time.

Right after gaining independence, the Party and State paid a lot of attention to the role of Customs and soon established the Vietnam Customs Agency to take the responsibilities of fighting, building and protecting and developing the country. Would you share the role of Vietnam Customs associated with the history of fighting, building and developing the country over past 73 years?

73 years ago, on 10^th September 1945, only 8 days after the day when President Ho Chi Minh proclaimed the independent Democratic Republic of Vietnam, the Minister of Home Affairs Vo Nguyen Giap, on behalf of the Provisional Government signed Decree No. 27 / SL to establish the "Department of Taxation and Indirect Taxes" - precursor of Vietnam Customs today. This event marked the birth of the Vietnam Customs and affirmed the indispensable role of the Customs force in the existence and development of State government as well as asserting the national sovereignty on foreign economic relations of our country.

In the period from 1945 - 1954, from the simple task of collecting import and export duties, the sector was assigned additional duties, which were anti-drug smuggling and reconciliation for violations on tariffs and indirect taxes.

In the period 1954-1975, Vietnam Customs was identified as a tool to ensure the proper implementation of the State monopoly regime of foreign trade, foreign exchange, implement tax policy (collecting taxes for non-commercial goods), receive aid goods and fight against cross-border smuggling.

After the unification of the country in 1975, the Customs operated over the country, in international seaports, airports, foreign post offices and freight stations etc. On 30^th August 1984, the State Council approved Resolution 547 / NQ / HDNN7 establishing the General Department of Customs under the Council of Ministers.

During the process of implementing the tasks in the period of renovation, opening and integration of the country, especially since 2002, when attaching to the Ministry of Finance, the General Department of Customs had mobilized its resources to simultaneously perform the two important tasks which were State management on Customs and facilitation to import and export activities.

In this process, the Customs sector marked many important milestones associated with the country’s history, including opportunities and challenges, especially in the period of Vietnam’s deep integration with the world. The challenges were opportunities and motives for the development of Vietnam Customs.

The past 73 years were the process of continuous efforts of many generations of Customs civil servants and employees to build and develop Vietnam's customs from a rudimentary and manual sector to a modern one, becoming one of the pioneering sectors in the implementation of administrative reform and modernization.

It can be said that the role of Customs in trade facilitation is increasingly confirmed, would you give further assessment and analysis to this task?

Originating from the requirements of integration and development of the country, in order to fulfil assigned tasks, the role, responsibility and workload of Vietnam Customs are increasing.

To fulfill the tasks, together with the guidance and directions of the Government and the leaders of the Ministry of Finance, the General Department of Customs have made efforts to synchronously implement a series of solutions.

The first is the institutional reform toward approaching international standards and practices in modern customs management. In 2018, the completion of customs law and policy was identified as a key task of the sector. From the beginning of the year, the General Department reviewed the whole system of Customs legislative documents, thereby 16 documents needed amending and supplementing.

Up to now, the Customs sector has drafted and submitted to the Ministry of Finance to submit to the Government and the Prime Minister to sign 3 Decrees and 2 Decisions: Decree No. 12/2018 / ND-CP; Decree No. 59/2018 / ND-CP; Decree No. 84/2018 / ND-CP; Decision 10/2018 / QD-TTg; and Decision No. 20/2018 / QD-TTg.

At the same time, the General Department of Customs shall propose the Ministry of Finance to promulgate 4 Circulars: Circular 39/2018 / TT-BTC; Circular No. 38/2018 / TT-BTC; Circular No. 50/2018 / TT-BTC; Circular 728/2018 / TT-BTC.

In particular, Decree 59 and Circular 39 are the core documents in the customs operation, improving management efficiency and introducing new regulations to facilitate export-import activities.

With regard to trade facilitation, the documents clearly stipulate the promotion of IT application in customs operations; the change of the mode of declaration and submission of customs dossiers and the time limit for handling administrative procedures to ensure uniformity of the implementation of e-customs procedures.

At the same time, a number of regulations to improve management capacity and introduce timely solutions to prevent smuggling, trade fraud and customs law violations.

In addition to the institutional improvement, what are the prominent imprints showing the continuous efforts of the Customs sector in trade facilitation, Sir?

Trade facilitation is a big category that requires the participation of many ministries and sectors. As the standing office of the National Steering Committee for the ASEAN Single Window (ASW), the National Single Window (NSW) and Trade Facilitation (Committee 1899), the General Department of Customs made good efforts to carry out advice and introduce to the Government and the 1899 Committee many solutions, and guide the implementation of these guidelines throughout the country.

The Customs coordinated with other ministries and sectors to actively implement new procedures, expand the scope and number of enterprises participating in procedures implemented in NSW to meet the objectives and progress stated in the Resolution. 19-2017 / NQ-CP. At the same time, since 1^st January, Vietnam has officially exchanged C / O form D with four countries in the region: Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand through ASW.

In particular, the Ministry of Finance and the General Department of Customs chaired to develop contents for nationwide online conference on "Promotion of NSW, ASW and Trade Facilitation”. This was the first national conference on National Single Window and Trade Facilitation that was hosted by the Prime Minister.

After the conference, the General Department of Customs completed and submitted to the Ministry of Finance, the Government and the Prime Minister a draft Decree regulating the implementation of administrative procedures through NSW, ASW and specialized inspection of goods. Import and export; Action plan to promote NSW, ASW, and specialized inspection reform for import-export goods and trade facilitation for the period 2018-2020.

An important goal is connecting 138 new procedures to NSW, raising the connected procedures to 191 by the end of 2018.

Along with that, the Customs continues to implement synchronous solutions for reform and facilitation, such as enhancing IT application in all professional activities; strengthening investment in modern equipment.

Particularly, the Customs sector is trying to innovate and improve the efficiency and quality of the Customs-Business partnership. The innovation of thinking from management to service is a breakthrough, which is appreciated by the business community.

With the spirit of reform, the General Department of Customs always listens to the opinions of enterprises, thereby providing solutions to facilitate businesses to improve productivity and business efficiency. The message of the Customs is trade facilitation and helping the business community to comply with the law.

Ensuring security and safety

Could you analyze and evaluate in more detail the remarkable changes in the renovation of management method and the improvement of efficiency for anti-smuggling ?

Together with the task of trade facilitation, the whole sector always determines the customs inspection, control and supervision as a key task, especially in the context of international integration with the increase in smuggling, trade fraud, illegal cross-border goods transportation, intellectual property infringement and transport of banned goods, etc.

The improvement of efficiency and effectiveness of management are also contributing to creating favorable conditions for legitimate businesses and ensuring safety and security for the community.

Regarding the management and supervision, a remarkable imprint is that the whole sector is promoting the implementation of the automated system for customs management. According to the plan, on 30^th September 2018 the system will be basically implemented nationwide. The system initially made a fundamental change in the method of operation of the Customs force and helps the Customs connect and exchange information with related organizations such as warehouse, port and depot operators, shipping lines and carriers, etc. Thereby effectively managing imported and exported shipments during the transportation process from the time when the means of transport enters Vietnamese territory or territorial waters until the shipments are cleared or re-exported.

For the business community including import-export enterprises and warehouse, port and deport operators, the system contributes to reforming, reducing time for administrative procedures, reducing costs and enhancing competitiveness and bringing efficiency in operation.

For the control and combat against smuggling, as the Standing Office of the Steering Committee No. 389 of the Ministry of Finance, the General Department of Customs has advised the Ministry of Finance to coordinate with ministries, sectors and competent agencies to intensify the fight against smuggling, trade frauds, fake goods and illegal cross-border goods transportation.

At the same time, directing its units to seriously and effectively carry out important solutions, focusing on: perfecting the legal framework; raising the capacity of forces in charge of anti-smuggling; investing in modern equipment and means; using synchronous operational measures; strengthening the coordination, inspection and regular control in key localities and sensitive commodities.

With the series of solutions mentioned above, the whole sector continues investigating and handling thousands of violations, collecting and paying hundreds of billions of VND to the budget, including many violation cases with the value of billions of VND; and many transport cases of prohibited goods as narcotics, wildlife, weapons, reactionary materials and dirty food ...

Especially, in recent months, the customs force has struggled and successfully destroyed many illegal transport cases of narcotics with large amounts of material evidence. Especially, the transport of 119 kg of cocaine from abroad to Vietnam (May 2018) with new methods and tricks compared to the past, that were camouflaged in scrap containers in the Ba Ria-Vung Tau seaport. This is the largest crackdown on cocaine transport in Vietnam ever.

During performing the task of State management over customs, the General Department of Customs has promptly detected many loopholes and shortcomings in the mechanisms and policies for import and export goods in order to promptly propose competent agencies to amend and supplement to satisfy the actual situation. The story of imported scrap backlogs at seaports in the recent months is an example. Could you detail this matter?

Through the state management over customs, the General Department of Customs has timely discovered many inadequacies and loopholes in legal policies and has timely proposed competent agencies to amend and supplement such as issues related to temporarily imported goods for re-export; goods in transit; goods in border gate transshipment, etc. Recently, the story of scrap backlogs is attracting great attention of public opinion and receiving drastic direction from the Government.

The General Department of Customs has advised the Ministry of Finance to report to the Government on drastic measures in the management of imported scraps, actively coordinated with the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment to review and evaluate loopholes in the legal system and in the implementation.

At the same time, the customs sector has comprehensively implemented measures to inspect, control and promptly prevent waste shipments failing the standards and causing high risks of environmental pollution to the inland. This clearly demonstrates the role of Customs in ensuring public health and safety, which is one of the important functions of the modern Customs administration.

Revolution of organizational structure associated with human resource building

How does the Customs implement the Party’s Resolutions on apparatus restructuring and streamlining, Sir?

The General Department of Customs has attached great importance to restructuring the apparatus in a streamlined, efficient and effective manner in the spirit of the Resolution of the XII Central Session on apparatus restructuring and streamlining and achieved positive results.

The Customs has carried out drastically, synchronously, scientifically and strictly to not disturb the work and affect the import and export activities.

The General Department of Customs issued a decision on apparatus restructuring of Customs Branches, control divisions and equivalent units under 35 local Customs Departments and Customs Verification Department. Accordingly, 239 teams have been cut.

This is one of the largest apparatus streamlining and restructuring times in the Customs sector.

The apparatus restructuring and streamlining are closely associated with the promotion of IT application and development of the job placement scheme, so that the implementation of import and export procedures, the management, supervision and professional activities are guaranteed.

In the coming time, the General Department of Customs shall review and report to the Ministry of Finance on the plan on rearranging Customs Branches and the equivalent units under the Customs Departments according to the Finance Ministry's Decision No. 2015 / QD-BTC. It is expected to reduce at least 10 customs branches. At the same time, reporting to the Ministry of Finance on the rearrangement and reorganization of the Customs Departments according to the criteria in Decree No. 36/2015 / ND-CP.

The achieved results have clearly expressed the Customs efforts but the requirements set for the whole sector are very heavy, in the coming time, which key tasks will be focused on, Sir?

Together with the innovation and development of the country, unpredictable changes of the world have always set new requirements and tasks for the Customs. Apart from the regular tasks assigned by the leaders of the Ministry of Finance and the leaders of the General Department of Customs, from the beginning of the year and from now to the end of 2018, I requested the units to make good efforts to implement the key tasks as follows:

Firstly, continuing well implementing the reform and simplification of administrative procedures in the spirit of Resolution No. 01 / NQ-CP and Resolution No. 19-2018 / NQ-CP, directions by the Government and the Ministry Finance related to Customs, import and export, etc. Finalizing the proposals to submit to the Government and Ministry of Finance in accordance with the plan and quality.

Further promoting the role of the Standing Office of the Steering Committee 1899 and the Standing Committee 389 of the Ministry of Finance.

Secondly, for implementing the budget collection task well, accordingly it needs to implement the measures of price and code management, strengthen the anti-loss of revenues, collect outstanding debts and strive to exceed the estimate of VND 283,000. This is a leading important political task, which is facing many challenges due to the impact of tariff reduction under the commitments of international integration.

Thirdly, timely launching the automated system for customs management that ensures the quality and efficiency.

Fourthly, continuing effectively controlling and dealing with imported scraps.

Fifthly, further improving the effectiveness of the fight against smuggling, trade frauds and counterfeit goods, especially promptly building plans to fight in the peak period, before, during and after the Lunar New Year of 2019.

The Customs’ switchboard hotline number, 1900 96 96 47, enhances the ability to receive the problems of enterprises. VCN - The General Department of Vietnam Customs has officially put into service the switchboard hotline, 1900 ...

On behalf of the leaders of the General Department of Customs, I would like to send to the officers and employees of Customs wishes for health, happiness and success. We affirm that the Vietnam Customs continues to perform well its functions and tasks in facilitating trade and ensuring national security to be worthy of trust by the Party, State and people.

Thank you very much,