Đinh Tiến Dũng, Minister of Finance, talks to the Hải Quan (Customs) newspaper about his ministry’s efforts to facilitate conditions for the nation to integrate internationally

What are some of the key successes in the course of implementing the ASEAN Single Window and the National Single Window over the last few years?

With an objective to facilitate conditions for foreign trade activities and to implement the country’s international commitments, the Ministry of Finance has worked closely with concerned ministries and sectors to implement the ASEAN Single Window (ASW) and the National Single Window (NSW).

By now I can say the implementation of ASW and NSW has contributed to our trade sector’s reform process toward the goal of improving Việt Nam’s competitiveness in the international market.

By late April 2018, 47 administrative procedures of 11 ministries and sectors have been connected with the NSW with more than 1.1 million dossiers from nearly 21,000 enterprises.

From the onset of 2018, Việt Nam was among five ASEAN nations to have officially applied the ASW. By April 20, Việt Nam had received 22,029 certificates of origin (C/O) from Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand. Meanwhile, Việt Nam had sent 11,112 C/O to these four countries.

Regarding the field of checking import-export goods, the MOF has co-ordinated with concerned ministries and agencies to revise or supplement 79 legal documents accounting for 91 per cent of the documents needed to be revised.

Will you please talk a bit about impacts of the implementation of the NSW and ASW in the course of improving national competitiveness?

I should say the introduction of the NSW and the ASW together with the Government’s efforts to facilitate conditions for trade development have helped us to shorten the time for customs clearance.

According to a WB report, in the year 2017, Việt Nam was able to slash 3 hours for customs procedures for exported goods and 6 hours for imported goods. Meanwhile, the cost of direct customs clearance at the border gate for a consignment dropped to US$19. It is estimated that with more than 11 million customs declarations in 2017, the enterprises were able to save over US$200 million while saving more than 16 million hours from storing the exported items in the warehouses.

What are the weaknesses that Việt Nam has to overcome?

In my opinion, we should further streamline our administrative procedures. We need to simplify and share information among concerned government agencies and offices within the MOT and Việt Nam customs offices.

We are now living in the age of the 4.0 industrial revolution where the internet has become an essential instrument in our work performance. But we have not yet made the best of this technology in our work or service. It is urgent for us to overcome these weaknesses.

Another weakness I have to mention is the slow pace of revising our legal documents in the fields of management and checks of special import-export goods. Eight out of 87 documents which must be revised on order from the Prime Minister have not been finished.

What Việt Nam should do to create a break-through in the course of implementing the ASW and NSW?

The MOF has already developed the draft of the PM’s Decision on the Action Plan to accelerate the implementation of the NSW and ASW and the special checks for export-import goods in the period from 2018-2020. A very important goal that has been emphasised in these documents is to apply the NSW in the form online of public service at the 4th level.

Technically speaking, right now Việt Nam is ready to connect and share information with other ASEAN trade partners through the ASW.

The draft PM’s Decision has also come up with specific targets for each year. It also lays a special emphasis on the nation’s resolve to remain as one of the four leading countries in ASEAN in shortening the customs time for goods, passengers and vehicles. — VNS