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Aug 01, 2019 / 15:00

Trade facilitation must be accompanied by trade fraud prevention: Deputy PM

The reform of the custom clearance process must ensure greater trade facilitation and efficiency in tackling trade fraud activities.

Vietnam’s efforts against trade fraud activities should not affect business operation and legitimate rights of enterprises, according to Deputy Prime Minister Vuong Dinh Hue.
 
Overview of the conference. Source: VGP.
Overview of the conference. Source: VGP.
Hue made the statement at a meeting on July 31 discussing measures to promote trade facilitation and logistics by greater integration into ASEAN National Single Window (NSW), a regional initiative with objective of expediting cargo clearance and promoting ASEAN economic integration by enabling the electronic exchange of border documents among its member states.

Hue is chairman of the National Steering Committee for ASEAN Single Window (ASW), National Single Window (NSW) and Trade Facilitation, also known as Committee 1899.


As of July 10, a combined of 174 administrative procedures from 13 ministries have been carried out through Vietnam’s NSW with 2.3 million documents from 31,000 enterprises stored in its database. 

Notably, some ministries have completed the integration process, such as the Ministry of Transport with 87 procedures, the Ministry of Science and Technology with 6 procedures. 

Additionally, Vietnam has exchanged certificates of origin (C/O) with 6 ASEAN country members, including Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Brunei and Cambodia, accumulating a total of 87,355 C/O received and 153,872 sent. 

However, the target of connecting 61 administrative procedures in 2019 remains challenging, said Hue, as only 16 procedures so far have been connected to the country’s own NSW and that of ASEAN. 

The remaining 45 include 14 of the Ministry of Health, 12 of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, and 8 of the Ministry of Defense, accounting for 75% of the pending total. 

Meanwhile, Hue expected more efforts to reduce the number of goods subject to specialized inspection as the current reduction rate of 15% is lower than the target set by the National Assembly from 15-35%. 

Hue requested government agencies to complete the connection of 61 administrative procedures on the NSW as planned, reforming the custom clearance process towards greater trade facilitation and tackling trade fraud activities. 

With regard to the logistics sector, Hue pointed to its high costs for enterprises at 20% of the GDP in spite of the sector’s low contribution to the GDP at 4 – 5%, requesting more measures to reduce costs for enterprises. 

According to Hue, the Ministry of Industry and Trade is tasked with drafting up a development strategy for the logistics sector, targeting a contribution of 8 – 10% of the GDP by 2025 and growth rate of 14 – 20%, making Vietnam among the world’s top 50 in terms of competitiveness.