Introduce new model on quality and food safety inspection

Director General of Vietnam Customs Nguyen Van Can made a speech at the press conference. Photo: Thái Bình

Attending the conference were Deputy Director of Vietnam Customs Mai Xuan Thanh; representatives of the Government Office; representatives of some specialised management ministries; the Permanent Office of the National Steering Committee 389; the Central Institute for Economic Management - Ministry of Planning and Investment; the Office of Board for Private Economic Development Research – Advisory Council for Administrative Procedure Reform of the Prime Minister; the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI); representatives of a number of enterprises, business associations; representatives of the US - ASEAN Business Council in Vietnam (USABC); USAID funded trade facilitation project; a number of units under the Ministry of Finance, the General Department of Vietnam Customs, and press agencies.

Speaking at the press conference, General Director Nguyen Van Can emphasised that to promote the reform of administrative procedures, to facilitate the promotion of production and business activities, the Government has made a breakthrough direction in specialised inspection of import and export goods. The Government assigned the Ministry of Finance to chair the formulation of a scheme on reforming specialised inspection to fundamentally renovate and create a breakthrough in specialised inspection work, facilitating investment, trade, ensuring security, safety and national interests, as well as ensuring the full implementation of obligations and responsibilities in bilateral and multilateral agreements.

According to the Director General, though specialised inspection over the past time has achieved some results, it still has not met reform requirements. There were still many shortcomings from the order, procedures and methods of inspection.

“In many reports, as well as opinions of enterprises and business associations, there were still conflicts in legal documents on specialised management, meanwhile, the efficiency of inspection was not high. Within five years, the rate of detecting consignment which did not meet the quality was less than 0.03% compared with the rate of the given sample,” Director General Nguyen Van Can emphasised and said that the main concern was insufficient standards and regulations.

"There was a list of goods subject to specialised inspection, but standards and regulations were incomplete, causing difficulties for the law enforcement authority, affecting the cargo clearance process of the enterprise," he added.

Therefore, along with the promotion of reform solutions by the Government, along with the connection of the national single window, the field of specialised inspection needs to be synchronised.

Director General Nguyen Van Can said that asthe agency assigned by the Government to draft the scheme, the Ministry of Finance (the General Department of Vietnam Customs) has worked with unions, ministries and businesses, at the same time consulting experts’ opinions, in accordance with Vietnamese conditions to develop a scheme: "Reforming the model of quality inspection, food safety inspection for imported good". The scheme has been submitted to the Prime Minister for consideration and promulgation. This is a large, reformed and advanced policy that is suitable for advanced countries.

At the presentation of the project, the important contents were explained to delegates by representatives of the Customs Supervision and Control Department.

Based on assessing and analysing the current status of specialised inspection; research on quality control models of some countries; implementing the Government's directive for many years on the comprehensive reform of specialised inspection of imported goods; inheriting achieved results, the Ministry of Finance with support from the Government Office, ministries, sectors, business community, related units and organisations, and independent research experts has organised many seminars, dialogues, research and debates to develop the scheme "Reforming the model of quality inspection, food safety inspection for imported good".

Representatives of enterprises asked question to the leaders of the General Department of Customs about the scheme. Photo: Thái Bình.

The project aims to substantially reform specialised inspection of imported goods, cut costs and reduce time for enterprises, promote responsibility of ministries managing industries and areas, and improve national competitiveness.

On September 16, the Minister of Finance submitted a proposal to the Prime Minister for consideration and approval of the scheme.

According to the scheme model, many inspection procedures are simplified thanks to the information source and importer's database which is concentrated on the customs authority as one focal point. When goods are eligible for exempting from quality inspection or reduced inspection, the electronic customs system automatically updates and the importer does not have to apply for exemption or reduction as currently; reduce many duplicates between the customs dossier and quality inspection dossier.

The scheme includes seven major reforms:

To assign the customs authority to act as the focal point in quality and food safety inspection for imported goods.

Applying synchorously three inspection methods for food quality and safety to reduce the number of imported consignments subject to inspection, including: strict inspection; normal inspection; and reduced inspection.

Simplify procedures for quality and food safety inspection for import goods.

Apply item inspection to reduce the number of consignments subject to inspection (switching from strict inspection to normal inspection, from normal inspection to reduced inspection that is applied for identical goods and no differentiating of the importer).

Fully and substantially apply risk management in quality and food safety inspection for import goods to ensure the role of State management and improve the compliance of enterprises.

Expanding subjects exempt from quality inspection, food safety inspection, with a plan to add 18 groups of subjects to reduce costs of State management and costs of businesses.

Apply information technology system in the new model to cut time, support businesses and related authorities.

At the conference, delegates from ministries, enterprises, business associations and organisations joined in exchanging and discussing the scheme and at the same time consult with press and media units.