According to deputy director general of Vietnam Customs Nguyen Cong Binh, administrative reform on exports-imports had been the top priority of the government in recent years, adding that Decree No.19 on improving the business climate and national competitiveness stipulates a reduction in the rate of goods under specialised inspection in customs clearance to below 10 percent from the current 25-27 percent. Despite achievements in administrative reform, World Bank’s Doing Business Index showed that Vietnamese enterprises still faced difficulties in abiding by regulations on specialised inspection of exports-imports, he said.
Exports and imports are facilitated under the national one-stop shop mechanism
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Launched in November 2014, the national one-stop shop mechanism has so far connected with 11 out of 14 ministries and departments and 47 out of 284 administrative procedures on specialised inspection. However, many procedures on specialised inspection are yet to be conducted online.
The draft decree will help simplify customs clearance procedures and establish an inter-sectoral mechanism to ensure effective coordination among units via the national one-stop shop.
Early this year, Deputy Prime Minister Vuong Dinh Hue also instructed relevant ministries and agencies to scrutinize all specialized management and inspections in a move to eliminate unnecessary or overlapped ones in 2018.
According to Hue, it is necessary to simultaneously facilitate trade and fight trade fraud, while preventing red tape caused in the name of trade fraud prevention. He directed the relevant ministries and agencies to remove at least 50 percent of goods from the list of items subject to specialized examination. They also have to reduce the rate of goods batches subject to specialized examination during customs clearance from 30-35 percent of the total batches at present to 15% in the second quarter of 2018.
Besides, they are required to apply international practices, simplify administrative procedures and strengthen post clearance audit.
For imported and exported goods subject to specialized inspections, the list of goods subject to specialized inspection must be issued and enclosed with HS code in accordance with the Vietnam Export and Import Classification Nomenclature.
The standards or inspection methods must be announced, Hue said, adding that the lists without standards or inspection methods must be abolished.
To meet the target, Hue required the Ministry of Finance, in conjunction with the Ministry of Communications and Information to implement the IT system to serve the National Single Window mechanism and the ASEAN Single Window mechanism in 2018, ensuring the information connection safely.
The relevant ministries and sectors must carry out all 130 new administrative procedures in 2018 as registered in the master plan for implementing the National Single Window and the ASEAN Single Window for 2016-2020, he said.
Data as of December 15, 2017, showed that businesses saved more than $205 million on customs clearance procedures, over 15 million hours of storage for exports and over 33 million hours of storage for imports.
The Ministry of Finance said by December 2017, ministries and sectors had amended and supplemented 74 out of 87 documents on specialized management and examination. Some documents were revised to facilitate businesses and reduce time for customs clearances, which were applauded by the business community.
