Willingness to deploy the “airway single window”

Advance information on passengers, goods, and vehicles will help the authorities take the initiative to capture information, shorten clearance time. Photo: N.Linh.

Undertaking the task of "navigating" is no small pressure on the Customs Department of Hanoi. With the efforts of the Customs and consensus of the business community, 100% of the airlines have registered to participate; the single window system has received the electronic information about vehicles and luggage from 100% of the airlines to the system; the Customs offices are also coordinating with the airway warehouse businesses to receive the electronic information about goods. The initial results of the Customs Department of Hanoi will be the premise for the Customs to deploy officially nationwide.

From the discrete connection...

Over the past years, implementing the modernization reform plan of the Ministry of Finance and the General Department of Customs, the Customs Department of Hanoi always attaches great importance to accelerating the implementation of the administrative reform and modernization on the basis of strong IT application on all operation areas. However, in the customs management, the Customs Department of Hanoi finds that the way of managing cargo and luggage by the air at international airports has not met the requirements of the modern management, the supervision/ management and assessment for the key objects has been a lack of information.

According to analysis of Mr. Dang Hoang Diep, Head of Customs Supervision and Managing Division (the Hanoi Customs Department), before the implementation of the National Single Window, the State management agencies (the border Police, the Customs, the AirPort Authority...) carried out the manual and separate procedures, have not connected and shared information among the parties; Have not received the electronic information from the businesses. While the airline businesses connected, exchanged information electronically... So, it was difficult to detect and prevent violations due to lack of information. For the Customs, the goods information in and out of the air warehouse provided by a hard copy took a long time, usually twice daily for all flights, both redundant and missing information made it difficult to manage and monitor.

The airlines must submit the dossier at the same time to five State management agencies at the international airports, including the Customs, the Police, the Airport Authority, the Medical Quarantine Agency (the Ministry of Health) and the Animal and Plant Quarantine Agency (the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development). Thus, the enterprises must prepare multiple sets of the same file and multiple declarations of the same information type to the State management authorities.

For the air warehouse businesses, the manual exchange of information between the Customs and the warehouse businesses has caused a lot of difficulties for the Customs authorities in managing and reporting statistics; especially the tracking of goods in/out, inventory, overdue customs procedures,... took a lot of time, high labor cost, it was difficult to ensure the accuracy and timeliness of statistics

Due to the shortcomings in the management of goods and luggage at the international airports, the Hanoi Customs Department has proposed the General Department of Customs proactively to permit the implementation of the National Single Window mechanism for the airway and the Project on supervision of air cargo at the Noi Bai International Airport.

…To receive the electronic information

In September 2016, the General Department of Customs established the Steering Committee for the Implementation of the airway Single Window Mechanism. The Customs Department of Hanoi was assigned to act as the focal point for surveying, collecting and analyzing the information; to coordinate the coordination activities with the agencies at the Noi Bai International Airport; to organize propaganda and mobilizing the enterprises to participate in the National Single Window Mechanism; Propose the procedures, management model, functional requirements list on the air cargo management and monitoring system to the General Department of Customs.

In order to implement, the Hanoi Customs Department has developed a program and plan to work with the airlines, the aviation agents, the warehouse companies and the forwarding companies located in the area to study practice at the airport, so that, there is a roadmap and set requirements for management and work with each specific object.

From August 2016 to June 2017, 4 surveys and 39 meetings and working sessions with stakeholders were organized by Hanoi Customs Department. Because this project is related to many units outside the sector, the Hanoi Customs Department has scheduled work with relevant units actively; organized working with the airlines, urged directly each airline to implement the National Single Window. During this time, to study the experience of the foreign Customs, study the international standards, the Hanoi Customs Department organized a delegation to refer to the experience of the Japanese Customs and the Korean Customs; survey the fact and work with the air warehouses, the airport authorities and the airline carriers. From there, the unit proposed a management model, built the professional solution for the general management of air cargo and luggage, drafted a list of the system functions and legal regulations for implementation.

According to Mr. Dang Hoang Diep, due to the initiative and coordination among the units involved in the deployment, the system of airway single window was put into operation on 1st January 2017, met the State management request by the electronic method at the Noi Bai International Airport. From 25th May, the National Single Window has been able to receive the electronic information (aviation i-messages) on vehicles, passengers, and luggage from 100% of the airline carriers sent to the system. In addition, the Customs office received fully flight information from nine international airports and information about passengers, vehicles, and passengers prior to the flights from all major airlines through the national single window.

On the goods, from April 1st, the Customs Department of Hanoi has cooperated with the General Department of Customs and 3 companies of air cargo warehouse (ALSC, ACSV and NCTS) to expand the deployment of receiving electronic information on the goods for nearly 30 airlines due to these warehouses operated at the Noi Bai International Airport. Also from 1st April, the Customs office has piloted screening prior to clearance for the import goods and after clearance (before the goods are out of warehouses) for the export goods based on prior information.

According to Mr. Dang Hoang Diep, with the implementation of the National airway Single Window mechanism and the Project on supervision of air cargo will bring great effect for the airlines, and warehouse businesses. Through initial deployment, the initial recognized result is that the system operated smoothly. The first benefit of this Project is to serve firstly for the import and export activities of the businesses, ensure to shorten the clearance time to facilitate the import and export activities. At the same time, the management of the State agencies capture more actively the information of the import and export goods, the immigration passengers to the airports, so that, they take the management measures.