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The delegation of Bac Ninh Customs Department worked with Samsung Group in Vietnam on February 15, 2023.

This is an activity within the framework of the implementation of the Customs-Business and Stakeholders Partnership Development Plan in 2023.

Implement partnership

In 2022, facing the difficulties of the economy in general and of enterprises with import-export activities in their respective management areas in particular, leaders and a team of officers, civil servants and employees of the Customs Department Bac Ninh were determined, united to strive, and well performed the assigned political tasks.

On all aspects of work in 2022, Bac Ninh Customs Department has achieved impressive numbers. That is, the total import-export turnover in the area under the management of the Department reached 176.6 billion USD (equivalent to 108% compared to 2021) and became the Customs unit with the leading import-export turnover in the country. Besides, the budget revenue unit reached VND 12,472 billion, exceeding 16% of the assigned target.

However, entering 2023, statistics in the first month of the year showed that the performance indicators showed signs of decline compared to the same period in 2022.

Specifically, import-export turnover as of February 15, 2023 reached 19.94 billion USD, equaling 84% of the same period in 2022; the total number of customs declarations reached 167,000, equaling 81% of the same period in 2022; total budget revenue reached VND 1,220 billion, equaling 67% of the same period in 2022.

The delegation of Bac Ninh Customs Department took photos with leaders of Hong Hai Technology Group Foxconn on February 16, 2023.

Faced with that situation, on the basis of the Customs-Enterprise and Stakeholders Partnership Development Plan in 2023, the Bac Ninh Customs Department has implemented a specific working plan with big businesses and groups with production and business activities for export products such as garments and electronics, etc, which are located in three provinces of Bac Ninh, Bac Giang and Thai Nguyen.

Through the working sessions, the leaders of Bac Ninh Customs Department also expect to learn more about the production and business situation, major difficulties and obstacles, recommendations and proposals on state management policies of Customs.

Share difficulties with businesses

In February and the first days of March 2023, the delegation of Bac Ninh Customs Department led by Mr. Tran Duc Hung, Director of the delegation, visited and worked with a number of big corporations and enterprises.

For example, System 5 companies under Samsung Group in Vietnam specializes in manufacturing mobile phones, electronic components for mobile phones, tablets and other electronic devices; System of 5 companies under Hong Hai Technology Group Foxconn specializes in manufacturing products such as switches, routers, security cameras, wireless headsets, wireless network streamers, etc. Followed by TNG Investment and Trading Joint Stock Company, Ha Bac Garment Export Joint Stock Company and Ha Phong Garment Export Joint Stock Company which are large textile enterprises in the area.

The delegation of Bac Ninh Customs Department visited the factory of TNG Investment and Trading Joint Stock Company on February 28, 2023.

At the working sessions, businesses all commented that the global economic picture in 2023 is not very positive. The latest forecast of the World Bank (WB), global economic growth is at a low level (1.7%), much lower than the 3% rate announced by the World Bank in June 2022.

The growth rate of many economies dropped sharply due to the influence of the increasing interest rate, and the solutions that many countries have taken to curb inflation; the conflict in Ukraine continues along with the difficulties of the world's major economies.

The world economic situation significantly affects the production, business and import-export activities of enterprises. A sharp increase in international freight rates, a decline in consumer demand in the foreign market, led to a decrease in the number of orders in 2023. They are the common difficulties of domestic enterprises producing goods for export.

In the field of textiles and garments, enterprises exporting to the US market will encounter trouble. Due to the decrease in consumer demand, the number of orders from partners in this market will decrease sharply, leading to a situation of not producing at full capacity but still having to maintain employee retention.

However, enterprises exporting to the EU and Russia markets have relatively positive business results and growth forecasts in 2023, the number of orders up to now has reached about 85% of the plan for the first six months of the year.

At the working sessions, the delegation of the Bac Ninh Customs Department listened and shared the difficulties of businesses, as well as received and answered many questions about customs procedures. Specifically, problems with the import and export code; procedures for machinery and equipment that export processing enterprises (EPEs) lend domestic enterprises to perform processing contracts for EPEs; problems with the limit on the number of tax refund declarations of the exemption, reduction and refund system; issues with intellectual property related to imported goods labels.

In addition, businesses also proposed policies to manage the import of used machinery and equipment (recommendation to increase the age of used machinery to produce electronic components); shorten the time to issue C/O for export goods, and some comments from textile and garment enterprises to contribute to the draft amendment to Circular 39/2018/TT-BTC.

For petitions beyond its authority as well as comments on amendments to the Circular, Bac Ninh Customs Department will record and report them to competent authorities for timely settlement.

The delegation of Bac Ninh Customs Department worked with Ha Bac Garment Export Joint Stock Company and Ha Phong Garment Export Joint Stock Company on March 1, 2023.

At the working sessions, businesses highly appreciated the initiative in capturing information, sharing difficulties and promptly solving problems arising in import-export activities of Bac Ninh Customs Department.

In addition, enterprises noted that the reform and modernization of the Customs sector have contributed to shortening the clearance time and reducing costs for businesses. Especially, the application of modern IT systems such as VNACCS/VCIS system, online public service has helped to reduce time, records and administrative procedures for businesses, indirectly helping to enhance commodity competitiveness of enterprises in particular and of the Vietnamese economy in general in the international arena.

After the above working sessions, the Bac Ninh Customs Department continued to evaluate the effectiveness and draw lessons to promote the implementation of activities of the Customs – Enterprise partnership development program and the pilot program to support and encourage enterprises to voluntarily comply with customs laws.

Thereby proactively capturing business information, propagating and supporting the business community to learn and strictly comply with the provisions of the law related to import-export activities, helping businesses to gradually improve their level of compliance, reducing the proportion of declarations of Yellow and Red channels, contributing to improving the competitiveness capacity index of localities.

In the Plan of Reform, Development and Modernization of Bac Ninh Customs Department to 2025", "Plan to develop a partnership between Customs - Enterprises and stakeholders in 2023", Bac Ninh Customs Department set goals: Building a lean organization and apparatus, meeting the implementation of digital customs towards smart customs; drastically and synchronously implement administrative procedure reform; promote digital transformation in customs operations; promoting the implementation of the Customs-Enterprise partnership and related parties, creating more favorable conditions in import-export activities of the business community.