HÀ NỘI — The war against smuggling, trade fraud and counterfeit goods will be enhanced in the final months of this year, ahead of Tết (Lunar New Year) holiday.

This was revealed at a dialogue held yesterday to seek measures to combat smuggling.

Participants stressed that smuggling has become more complicated and expanded to all routes, including road, sea and air, posing great challenges in fighting the crime, particularly in hot spots such as border areas and remote mountainous areas.

Smuggled products included essential goods and products with high-tax and big differences between domestic and international prices, such as tobacco, alcohol, medicine, electronics, drugs, petrol, minerals and food products.

In the first ten months of the year, agencies uncovered 72,000 cases of smuggling, a year-on-year increase of two per cent.

Nguyễn Xuân Bắc, Deputy Head of the Department of Drug and Crime Prevention and Control, said the department would assign more officials to smuggling hot sports, increase co-ordination with relevant agencies such as police, customs and market watch forces and improve the skills of officials to detect rings. 

Deputy Director of the General Department of Police Đồng Đại Lộc agreed that smuggling has become more complicated, particularly tobacco smuggling. Each year, police discovered about 4,000 cases of tobacco smuggling, with a total of 9 million packs of cigarettes.

He stressed that smuggling was often perpetrated by criminal rings outside the country. Smugglers often brought products to Việt Nam’s border and used tough terrain to smuggle products into Việt Nam such as rivers and tracks through forests and around mountains.

Many smugglers were equipped with weapons and willing to attack officials if they were caught, he said. 

For the rest of the year, the department will focus on key areas such as border areas and key products such as petrol and tobacco in the fight against smuggling.

The department will also co-ordinate with authorised agencies to increase patrols and direct localities to urge locals not to work with smugglers.

Localities should also boost socio-economic development, creating jobs for locals so they have stable incomes and don’t work with smugglers, he said.

Bac from the Department of Drug and Crime Prevention and Control said it was essential to strictly punish smugglers as a warning for others and increase co-operation with authorised agencies of neighbouring countries such as China and Laos.

Leaders of localities and relevant agencies should bear legal responsibility if smuggling was found in their areas, he said. - VNS