Hone skills for professional customs officers

	Arranging customs officers to ensure clearance of import and export goods
	Develop customs officers meeting modern customs management requirements
	Customs officers need creative thinking in building digital customs and smart customs

Deputy Director of Personnel and Organization Department Bui Ngoc Loi

What solutions has Vietnam Customs provided to improve qualifications of customs officers?

The GDVC has offered many solutions to enhance qualifications of customs officers to meeting the requirements of customs reform and modernization.

Firstly, the GDVC assess the actual status of officers, thereby identifying training needs, developing training plans to build a contingent of officers with high professional status towards professionalism, civilization and discipline.

Second, the country’s top customs agency has reformed methods of human resource management based on the capacity and the working position. It also supplements and amends regulations on personnel management as the basis for human resources of the Customs sector in the new situation.

Third, the GDVC has completed the teaching materials system that is updated with the professional process of Vietnam Customs as well as international standards on modern customs management.

Fourth, the country’s top customs regulator has organized training courses under titles of officers in accordance with standardized teaching contents and materials. It has also reformed the form of training such as strengthening on-the-job training, developing online training system in line with reality to enhance the efficiency of training and save time and costs for units and officers.

What is the role of training and the retraining in the development of human resources towards Digital Customs and smart Customs model?

The GDVC has focused on renovating contents of training and retraining programs; applied modern equipment in teaching, developed teaching staff; completed policies on training and retraining and strengthened domestic and foreign cooperation in this area. Therefore, the GDVC will soon have a contingent of effective leaders, and sufficient officers that have mastery of knowledge, skills, and abilities in performance in the new period.

Could you tell us about the goals set by the Customs sector in the Scheme on training and improving skills for customs officers for 2021-2015?

The GDVC sets goals for 2021-2025 as follows:

The Customs sector develops customs officers at all levels that perform tasks in an experienced and professional manner, and master modern technology and equipment. The sector arranges sufficient officers with consistent structure and associated with the needs of working positions and the capacity of each officer, meeting the modern customs management model.

The GDVC develops professional experts at the general department and regional customs levels who master foreign languages and operational skills and are capable of chairing and administering international conferences.

The top country’s customs agency implements training and retraining for officers under their working positions to meet the knowledge and skills standards of the capability framework and ranks and grades.

The GDVC also implements in-depth training of knowledge and skills for officers to meet requirements on customs reform and development in the new period.

The sector focuses on training and promotes online training; develops the Vietnam Customs School as a modern and professional school that has facilities and management methods meeting standards of the regional training center, and has experienced lecturers satisfying the requirements of the country and the World Customs Organization (WCO), and capable of participating in international teaching.

Vietnam Customs equips with visual teaching aids, the model of customs branch, virtual reality training platform, and upgrades the function of online training system to enhance training quality and meet requirements of the WCO’s Regional Training Center.

The GDVC builds the job rotation model for training and retraining among unit levels and departments in the same units, and in each work to improve qualifications and skills in performing tasks and widen practical experiences for officers, leaders and planning leadership positions.

What targets have been set by the GDVC by 2025?

The GDVC has set targets in the scheme by 2025 as follows:

The Customs sector focus on improving knowledge according to title and rank. By 2025, 100% of customs leaders will be trained, meeting requirements of the working positions; 80% of officers subject to the leadership planning are trained to satisfy conditions and standards of the working positions.

Up to 30% of deputy directors and 15% of division heads, deputy heads and equivalent positions and 15% of officers working in specialized departments under the GDVC must rotate and transfer to work in local units for training. Provincial and municipal customs departments must provide training plans to ensure that the leaders and officers will have comprehensive knowledge of advisory and practice performance.

100% teaching materials of eight professional areas, including import-export duty, customs management and supervision, post-clearance audit, anti-smuggling, risk management and handling offences, customs verification and inspection, are compiled to ensure quality and approved by competent agencies.

100% of part-time teachers are trained in specialized knowledge according to the teaching area and pedagogical skills; 100% of full-time teachers are trained with in-depth knowledge of one of six main professional areas and pedagogical skills.

90% of newly recruited officers are trained in general customs operations within a year after being recruited, meeting the conditions and standards for the job position.

The GDVC improves facilities to launch training, re-training and in-depth training programs in both face-to-face and online forms.

Thank you Sir!