Vietnam Customs to aim to meet international standards and best practices

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Deputy Director General of Vietnam Customs Mai Xuan Thanh and speakers attended the Seminar.

Reform orientations of the Customs sector

Speaking about the problems faced by the Customs sector in the context of the country's increasingly developed economy and strong international integration, Deputy Director General of Vietnam Customs Mai Xuan Thanh said that the challenges faced by the Customs sector are creating a balance between facilitation and State management on customs. The Customs agency has introduced many solutions for reform and modernization and proposed to ministries and agencies to continuously reform to reduce costs and time of customs clearance for enterprises.

When the facilitation has been carried out, the question is how to manage it. According to the Deputy Director General, the Customs sector has continued to maintain the control system with key forces such as: Anti-smuggling, post-customs clearance audit, risk management and other operations. The synchronous deployment of solutions will balance two important factors of facilitation and management, thereby promoting trade.

Regarding reform orientations of the Customs sector in the near future,Deputy Director General Mai Xuan Thanh said that in the past 10-year strategy, the Customs sector set certain goals in ASEAN.

In fact, in the past 10 years, there are some goals ranking 1st and 2nd, the middle ones, and the low ones. However, in the next 10-year strategy, the ranking in the region is not a concern for the Customs sector, the international standards and best practices are what Vietnam Customs is aiming for.

Sharing in detail the outstanding imprints of the customs sector's reform and modernization drive for many years, the director of the Customs IT and Statistics Department Nguyen Manh Tung said that the policy of reform, modernization, facilitation to import-export, entry-exit activities is a policy throughout the past 25 years. Thereby, it shows the interest of the Government, the Ministry of Finance, and leaders of the General Department of Customs towards reform and modernization. This is an important driving force for Customs to successfully perform political tasks amid international integration.

“The interesting thing in the reform and modernization strategies iscovering contents from institutional, operational reform to technology and organizational structure,of which information technology is always an interest,"said Mr. Nguyen Manh Tung.

Imprints confirm position

According to Mr. Nguyen Manh Tung, among the imprints of the customs reform and modernization process, the deepest and most pervasive imprint is the launching of the VNACCS / VCIS system.

This is an important change in terms of management as well as technology systems and social pervasiveness. The effectiverunning of the system has helped the Customs sector accelerate the reform process. Successfully launching of the VNACCS / VCIS system and as a standing agency of the Committee 1988, the Ministry of Finance and the General Department of Customs have submitted to the Government cooperation with relevant ministries and agencies toexpand the National Single Window with the imprint of official launching in 2015.

Another imprint of the Customs' success is the launching of the VASSCM system. This expressed the efforts of all customs officers, derived from local practices and inherited international experiencesto perform in Vietnam. Those reform imprintshave brought great value and showed the creativity of customs officers, and have spread to other fields.

“Previously, the connection between the Customs agency and the port, storage and warehouse operators was limited.It now has been strengthened since the deployment of VASSCM. That also reflects the inevitable trend in the coming period when the Customs sector conducts reform and modernization of customs management as sharing – connecting," said Tung.

Regarding the development of customs institutions and policies to contribute to reform, modernization and trade facilitation, Director of the Customs Control and Supervision DepartmentAu Anh Tuan said that recently, the General Department of Customs has advised the Ministry of Finance to submit to the Government and the National Assembly to promulgate many legal documents related to customs procedures in the spirit of trade facilitation while ensuring requirements for management and control of import and export activities and combating smuggling and trade fraud.

In particular, the Law on Customs 2014 creates an important legal basis for developing and improving the legal system of customs procedures, customs inspection and supervision. Of 19 contents assigned by the National Assembly, the Government, the Prime Minister and the Ministry of Finance in detail in the Customs Law, since 2015, the Ministry of Finance and the General Department of Customs have submitted to the Government for promulgation threedecrees, to the Prime Minister for promulgation three decisions and the Ministry of Finance issued 13 Circulars.

The above documents are developed on the principle of compliance with the requirements of the common goal of the national administrative reform; ensuring consistency with the national legal system and international treaties to which Vietnam has acceded. All regulations aim to be transparent and simplify customs procedures to facilitate import and export activities; and ensure consistency and create a full legal basis for customs management activities.

The spirit of administrative procedure reform and trade facilitation has been clearly stated in the content of the issued documents, such as reducing paperwork in customs dossiers, reducing unnecessary papers, digitizing declaration and submission of customs dossiers, rearranging stages in customs process to eliminate intermediaries, applying risk management for documentary examination and goods inspection and reducing customs clearance time.

Thereby, the customs agency has reduced the rate of Red and Yellow Channels and increased the Green Channel, and focused on controlling key goods. Besides, the customs agency has issued regulations to apply scientific and technological achievements to customs operations.

Also, according to Mr. Au Anh Tuan, it can be affirmed that when customs legal nominative documents are amended and issued, the aspects of trade facilitation in international conventions, standards and practicesare recognized and issued in the legal system.

The customs agency has also implemented other legal documents of relevant ministries and agencies on import and export goods, specifically regulations on specialized management. During implementation, the customs agency has discovered many shortcomings, prolonging the customs clearance time, thereby proposing ministries and agencies to improve the policies and mechanismstowards facilitating and reducing unnecessary procedures.

Vietnam Customs is proud of tradition, upholding achievements, proactively facing new opportunities and challenges VCN - 75 years of construction and growth, Vietnam Customs is constantly growing, making an important contribution ...

Within the framework of the seminar, Deputy Manager of Hai Phong Port Zone 3 Customs Branch (Hai Phong Customs Department) Dam Minh Nghiep and Head of Customs Control and Supervision Division (Quang Ninh Customs Department) Phung Thi Nguyen Hanh shared their experiences in implementing modernization and reform plans in the localities and difficulties and problems that they have encountered.