Dong Nai Customs and port enterprises recover imports, exports

Dong Nai Customs officers supervise imported and exported goods at Dong Nai port. Photo: N.H

Reducing costs for enterprises

Locating in the key economic zone of the South, Dong Nai is one of the leading localities in the country in production, imports and exports and is one of the most important links in the supply chain of goods and attracting FDI.

To support enterprises to restore production after the serious impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic and promote import-export activities, Deputy Director of Dong Nai Customs Department Nguyen Duong Hoai said that Dong Nai Customs Department has stepped up the work of administrative reform, customs modernization and trade facilitation.

This was a key task in the operation of Dong Nai Customs Department. It focused on three objectives which is to contribute constructively to institutional reform in the field of customs and reform the method of organizing the implementation of legal regulations to customs officers and the business community. It also focused on building the Customs-Business partnership.

In order to meet the rapidly increasing imports and exports of enterprises in the area, in 2021, Dong Nai Customs Department proposed to the General Department of Vietnam Customs and the People's Committee of Dong Nai province to report to the Ministry of Finance. The Ministry of Finance decided to transform the organizational structure of Long Thanh Customs Branch into Dong Nai port border gate Customs Branch.

This transformation opened up opportunities for the strong development of Dong Nai port and created a breakthrough in the import-export activities for businesses in the area. In the past, many goods items of businesses had to carry out procedures at border gate customs authority in other provinces and cities. At present, enterprises can implement procedures and deliver goods directly at Dong Nai port. Thereby, helping to reduce clearance time, transportation of goods and reduce costs for businesses.

Mr. Nguyen Van Ban, Deputy General Director of Dong Nai Port Joint Stock Company, said the implementation of customs procedures and delivering goods at Dong Nai port would help businesses to save VND400,000 - 500,000 in transportation costs for each container. Even if you add the port infrastructure fee that Ho Chi Minh City is collecting, the savings for each container was up to VND1 - 1.5 million.

In addition, Mr. Nguyen Van Ban said that, from the beginning of 2022 until now, the volume of goods passing through Dong Nai port reached a very high growth compared to the last months of 2021, especially, leather shoes, garments, and wood. With most of the major shipping lines going to the US and Europe already operated in there, Dong Nai port is expected to attract many new businesses and new products such as scrap and animal feed.

In order to meet the needs of enterprises, Dong Nai Port Joint Stock Company and Dong Nai Customs Department have close coordination and organize periodic and irregular meetings to solve arising problems quickly. In the future, the General Department of Vietnam Customs will put into use a container scanning machine at Dong Nai port, making goods inspection much faster and more convenient.

Meanwhile, Dong Nai Port Joint Stock Company is also investing in building more wharves and is expected to be put into operation from October 2022, helping to increase cargo volume. Along with that is investing in the ePort system to help reduce the use of paper documents, reducing the time to carry out procedures...

Solving empty container shortages

Besides the administrative reform and reducing costs for enterprises, to help to solve the issue of lack of empty containers for enterprises in Dong Nai province, Saigon Newport Corporation is changing the function of Nhon Trach ICD and Long Binh ICD to an empty container market which provides for customers at Dong Nai area and loading containers at Dong Nai area as well as the delivery of import container in this area.

With its advantage of geography, locating between key industrial park of Dong Nai province, Long Binh ICD and Nhon Trach ICD are cargo gathering points and empty containers which connect directly to the gateway port (providing 17.7% of the demand on empty containers for the area). This is the best offloading area for Tan Cang - Cat Lai port, conveniently connecting with Cai Mep port in cold container delivery with the advantages of saving costs and reducing time up to 35% - 90 % for factories in the distance from 2km - 20km.

Furthermore, resonating with diverse services, and synchronous service quality from Saigon Newport system, at present, Long Binh ICD and Nhon Trach ICD are prestigious partners of major customers in the region such as: Nestle, H&M, Pepsico, Hyosung, Texhong, Formosa, Pacorini, Brenntag, and DB.

Senior Colonel Bui Van Quy, Deputy Director General of Saigon Newport Corporation, said that Long Binh ICD currently has more than half a million square meters of warehouses that are developing very strongly, so the demand for LCL consolidated (less than container load) in there is very large. However, goods delivered in full containers and frozen goods depend on shipping lines, markets and distribution points.

Previously, Long Binh ICD was not the main focus point, but in the past two years, Saigon Newport has held many conferences to invite shipping lines and customers to listen and offer solutions, and now there are three pioneer shipping lines at ICD Long Binh. The growth rate of the empty containers as well as the cargo delivery activity in the past two years increased by over 40% and will increase further in the coming time. Meanwhile, 14 shipping lines choose the delivery and receipt points and the empty market in Nhon Trach ICD.

In addition, Saigon Newport also has preferential policies and tries to bring support packages to businesses, including issues of storage, warehousing, and output of shipping lines or customers who use Long Binh ICD will be applied the accumulation of output in the Saigon Newport system.

Regarding customs authority, at Long Binh ICD and Nhon Trach ICD, Mr. Nguyen Duong Hoai said that Dong Nai Customs is committed to always accompanying and creating the best conditions for enterprises. Currently, Dong Nai Customs Department is continuing to strongly apply information technology to professional activities.

Dong Nai Customs Department was assigned by the General Department of Vietnam Customs to chair to develop and perfect two core business problems and processes of the digital customs system, which are the management of export processing goods and the management of on-spot imports and exports. This is a favorable condition for Dong Nai Customs Department to implement digital transformation on the basis of the established criteria of the above two professional problems. This is expected to create a strong step forward in administrative reform of the unit.