Only one fifth of jobs done through implementing the National Single Window mechanism

Deputy Prime Minister Vuong Dinh Hue directed the units to "accelerate" the deployment of tasks in 2018. Photo: N.Linh

Nearly 555,000 applications are processed through NSW

Reporting on the implementation of ASW, NSW and trade facilitation, Deputy Minister of Finance, Vu Thi Mai said, “On the implementation of NSW, from 1st January, 2017 to 15th December, 2017, it processed nearly 555,000 records, up 272% over the same period in 2016 of nearly 20,000 enterprises through 47 administrative procedures (8 additional procedures compared to mid-2017). The ministries and sectors actively implemented NSW with large records and procedures including: The Ministry of Transport, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Ministry of Industry and Trade, and Ministry of Health.”

There are 17 sets of new procedures to be submitted to NSW in the first quarter of 2018 (Ministry of Industry and Trade - 5 procedures, Ministry of Science and Technology - 3 procedures, Ministry of Transport - 3 procedures State Bank - 1 procedure, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development - 4 procedures, Ministry of Health - 1 procedure).

About deploying ASW, Vietnam was officially connected since 1st January, 2018. It is expected to link with the Eurasian Economic Union to exchange information on export declarations and certificates of origin in October 2018.

Deputy Minister, Vu Thi Mai, said that seven ministries have completed the amendments and supplements to the document, including the Ministry of Industry and Trade; Planing and Investment; Science and technology; Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs; Information and communication; Culture, Sports and Tourism, and Construction.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has basically fulfilled the requirements (89%), 5/49 documents remain. The Ministry of Health has completed 66% of requests, 3 documents remain; 3 sets including, Transportation, Defense, Natural Resources and Environment have 1 document. Particularly, the Ministry of Public Security has not yet completed the amendment and supplementation of the two documents.

In the implementation of facilitating content, the Deputy Minister said that the National Trade Information Portal was put into operation to provide information to the business community on administrative procedures in the import and export sector.

At the same time, the Ministry of Finance (General Department of Customs) has actively implemented the project of cargo supervision at seaports and airports to connect port management agencies, carriers and logistics providers with the customs office through the NSW mechanism to simplify and automate the process of monitoring goods in and out of border gates, warehouses and yards; shorten inspection time and confirm the release of goods by the Customs.

Cut more than 200 million USD

Appreciating the efforts of the ministries, the Deputy Prime Minister, Vuong Dinh Hue, said that these efforts contribute to the ranking of business environment was promoted significantly. Deputy Prime Minister highly appreciated the effort and initiative of the Ministry of Finance and the General Department of Customs (as the standing body) in implementing the tasks of the Committee 1899. The implementation of NSW, ASW and specialized testing, has had some positive results.

"The Ministry of Finance's assessment report shows that in 2017 it is estimated that enterprises have cleared more than USD 200 million worth of customs clearance procedures, saving more than 15 million hours of storage for export goods and 33 million hours of storage for imports. This achievement will help Vietnam raise the business investment environment, reflecting the Government's efforts to reform the administrative procedures and especially the implementation of NSW during the past,” said the Deputy Prime Minister.

As for the specialized inspection of import and export goods, Deputy Prime Minister said that the Ministry of Finance has strictly implemented the direction of the Government by carrying out the overall review and report to the Prime Minister on remaining issues. At the same time, there are proposals to the Government and the Prime Minister to complete this work.

Deputy Prime Minister, Vuong Dinh Hue, said that despite achieving some results, compared with the target of striving to deploy NSW to do one fifth of the work, for 22 administrative procedures implemented in NSW as planned, only 8 have been implemented, and with 14 remaining procedures having to wait until the end of QI/2018 to be officially implemented. By the end of QI/2018, only 25 procedures have been put into operation (22 of which were implemented in the last 6 months of 2017), accounting for only 19% of the total 130 administrative procedures that were registered to be deployed by the ministries in 2017.

In the field of specialized inspection, the volume of goods subject to specialized inspection still accounts for a large proportion of the export and import volume, while the effectiveness and efficiency of specialized inspection is low. The number of legal documents that must be amended and/or supplemented must be relatively abundant. Some areas are missing, and the situation of overlap among ministries and branches in specialized inspection are still quite common, with the charge for specialized inspection of an export or import item too high.

A number of NSW ministry implementation and specialized inspectors have reported positive results. The Deputy Prime Minister said that in the Ministry of Industry and Trade, Ministry of Health, Agriculture and Rural Development, and Transportation, tried but not as expected. The investment in the development of information technology infrastructure of ministries and branches is still limited, the outsourcing of information technology services is still confusing etc.

From the above issues, Deputy Prime Minister, Vuong Dinh Hue, directed in 2018, to strive to implement 130 new administrative procedures as registered in period 2016 - 2020. In addition, ministries and sectors to continue to review and supplement. Add new procedures to the plan. Formally link the ASW to achieve the official goal of connecting ASW in 2018.

Regarding the field of specialized inspection; to reduce the proportion of goods subject to specialized inspection at the customs clearance from 30 - 35% of the total import and export shipments to the current 15% by the end of 2018, so as to create a convenient operation for enterprises, but it must also ensure efficiency in state management, anti-smuggling and trade frauds. To carry out the review to abandon at least 50% of the list of goods subject to specialized inspection. To terminate the trait for the list of goods subject to specialized inspection but with no regulations or grounds for inspection, except for a number of specific areas in 2018.