Implementation of National Single Window Mechanism: Towards online public service at level 4

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Customs operation at the Animal Quarantine Branch of Zone VII. Photo: T.B

Talking with the Customs Newspaper, Manager of the Animal Quarantine Branch of Lang Son (under the Department of Animal Health of Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development) Chu Nguyen Thach said that implementing NSW, the Branch deployed 2 procedures, including Granting Quarantine Certificate for exported terrestrial animal products (in December 2016); Granting Quarantine Certificate for imported terrestrial animal products (in October 2017). “Currently, the Branch has collected fees in accordance with regulations and the mode of collection is still implemented by offline collection and payment because is no IT system for online fee collection” – Mr. Thach said.

The fee collection for plant quarantine is implemented by traditional mode. According to Manager of Plant Quarantine Branch of Zone VII, Nguyen Thi Minh Ha, since 15 April 2017, the Branch and 5 Plant Quarantine Stations expanded the procedure for “granting Phytosanitary Certificate for import, transit and inland transport” via NSW and the fee collection is still implemented by manual method.

According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, currently, the Ministry has connected 17 chargeable administrative procedures to the NSW (phase 2018-2020) . Of which, the Department of Animal Health has the highest number of procedures with 11 procedures.

According to the survey conducted by the reporter, currently, not only in the agricultural sector, but also the fee and charge collection of most of all administrative procedures that have been connected to NSW in ministries and sectors are mainly implemented by offline payment mode, or remittance via banks, and have not yet been implemented by online method. For example, in the Health sector, currently, 11 chargeable administrative procedures of this sector have been being connected to NSW but these fees and charges have not yet collected by electronic method. The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism has 6 chargeable procedures. The Ministry of Science and Technology has 2 chargeable procedures.

So far, the function of online collection and payment of fees and charges has not yet been set up on the National Single Window Portal. In order to further facilitate the business community and increase the automation level in NSW implementation, in the Action plan for promoting National Single Window, ASEAN Single Window Mechanism and reforming the specialized inspection for imported and exported goods and trade facilitation for 2018-2020 (issued together with Decision 1254/QD-TTg dated 26 September 2018 of the Prime Minister), the Government sets the target that by 2020, the fee and charge collection of 100% of administrative procedures processed via NSW mechanism will be implemented by electronic method.

The online collection of fee and charge is considered as the final stage to complete the implementation of NSW under the mode of online public service at level 4 that is the highest level as per regulations in Vietnam.

Ministry of Transport connects 100% of procedures to NSW in 2018 VCN - This is an important content included in the Action Plan to promote the National Single ...

In order to achieve this target, recently, the General Department of Vietnam Customs- the Standing office of National Steering Committee on ASW, NSW and trade facilitation issued an official letter to request relevant ministries and sectors to review chargeable procedures connected to NSW to have a basis for proposals of solutions to achieve this target and report to National Steering Committee.

As of the beginning of December 2018, 135 procedures have been connected to NSW and 1.66 million dossiers of over 25,300 businesses have been processed via NSW portal in the country.