Customs News: Affirming the brand after five years of operation

The leaders and Editor-in-Chief of Customs Newspaper Vu Thi Anh Hong pressed the button to launch the English version of Customs Newspaper Online - Customs News in 2016. Documentary photo.

An interesting site with useful contents

Nguyen Thi Khanh Hong, Customs Technical Specialist - World Customs Organisation (WCO) commented: “I knew many customs experts from other countries and the WCO accessed and read articles in Customs News. In general, they all had the opinion that Customs News was very professional, with the participation of enthusiastic editors and reporters. The website has updated information on many different topics that are very useful for foreign investors and businesses who wanted to do business in Vietnam including information about customs, import and export, anti-smuggling, or customs services. At the same time, this is also a credible source of information for Vietnamese Customs officials who wanted to learn new knowledge about customs-related contents from the World Customs Organisation or other international organisations as well as updated the latest information about customs procedures of other countries in the world.”

Sharing the same opinion, Le Anh Quang, Senior Trade Facilitation Specialist of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) said: “This is a very interesting page with many useful contents. The content on digitisation and transfer pricing has been attracting more readers. I also noticed that international organisations such as International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank (WB), Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and many others organisations are interested in this content.”

Regarding the popularity of Customs News, Bui Ngoc Loi, Deputy Director of the Personnel and Organisation Department - General Department of Vietnam Customs said: “Customs News has gained a foothold in the business community and foreign investors. The content was relatively complete in the fields of Vietnam Customs’ operation and state management of import and export activities; information that every business seeking was covered.”

Furthermore, Ollie Arci, Viet Nam News journalist commented: “During the process of continuous international integration of Vietnam, Customs News has always promptly disseminated Vietnamese customs regulations and procedures. This is very important for foreign readers, especially foreign businesses and investors who want to establish business in Vietnam or invest capital in Vietnam. The timely update of customs procedures helps foreign readers to understand and feel more secure when entering Vietnam. There are many important updates that are not mentioned in other newspapers, therefore Customs News has become a valuable source of information for Vietnam’s development as the country had signed and implemented new generation free trade agreements and attracted foreign businesses.”

Customs News was also recognised and appreciated by the world customs community when Editor-in-Chief of Customs News Vu Thi Anh Hong on behalf of Vietnam Customs shared the results achieved in communication activities at the First Global Communication Strategy Conference of the World Customs Organisation took place in Brussels, Belgium on October 8 and 9, 2019. She said Vietnam Customs paid great attention to information and communication activities in various forms, of which the Customs Newspaper in general and the Customs News website in particular, was a modern multimedia product of Vietnam Customs. At this conference, Vietnam Customs was selected by WCO as one of the Customs authorities of member countries having best practices in the field of communication.

Gradually affirming the brand

Customs News currently has eight categories including: Headlines, Customs, Finance, Regulation, Anti-Smuggling, Import-Export, and World Customs. Besides that, the Services category has three sub-sectors included Legal Document, Q&A and Customs Statistic; Videos.

Mrs. Vu Thi Anh Hong, Editor-in-Chief of Customs Newspaper representing Vietnam Customs shared experience in communication of Vietnam Customs at the WCO Global Communication Strategy Conference 2019.

As a core member of the website development team, I was very honoured to be the person who participated in the development of the website from the beginning. With a close working process, ensuring close supervision of every sentence, every word, from editing, translating, proof-reading to publishing, our team always took care of each article, photo and video clip before uploading on the site. Every time a news article had feedback or has more questions about the policy, we felt like we were empowered to accomplish the job better. From articles on the website, it has created contact channels and investment opportunities between Vietnamese businesses and foreign partners.

Along with the development and modernisation of Vietnam Customs, over the past five years, Customs News has asserted itself as an effective communication channel of the Customs and finance sectors to the target international audience in an international language. From there, it can help readers to better understand the regulations related to the financial-customs sector, expanding opportunities to attract investment to Vietnam and enhance compliance with customs laws when investing in Vietnam.

The main content of the Customs News closely follows the direction of the Central Propaganda Department, as well as the direction and key tasks of the finance and Customs sectors. Of which, it is worth noting information related to the reform and modernisation process of Vietnam Customs; information related to the implementation of the National Single Window and ASEAN single window; implementing VNACCS/VCIS system. Besides that, Customs News also focuses on the dissemination activities and results of anti-smuggling, trade fraud and anti-drug activities; the exemplary collectives, advanced individuals, good people and good deeds in the whole sector.

The website also communicates the in-depth information relates to key activities of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and closely follows the activities of the embassies and the commercial counselors in Vietnam, focusing on the information related to new policies and regulations; information related to import and export activities, immigration, foreign investment attraction, investment abroad and analysing trends, market movements and trade relations; international customs operations.

Acknowledge and absorb to meet the demand of readers

According to Nguyen Thi Khanh Hong, in the future, to increase the volume of information and the attractiveness of this page, Customs News needs to update more topics, especially those related to APEC and ASEAN Customs.

The interface of Customs News website.

Furthermore, Bui Ngoc Loi, Deputy Director of the Organisation Department of General Department of Vietnam Customs, said in terms of content and form, in the future, it should be adjusted for users to easily access information and be more eye-catching; easy to lookup; easy to recognise a media product of Vietnam Customs. At the same time, it was necessary to revise the content of the items to be more appropriate. On the other hand, adding other categories related to the Customs operation environment. For example, logistics is a field related to infrastructure and import-export services.

In the future, the Editorial Board of Customs Maganise will review and re-calibrate the category and interface in the direction of friendly users to meet the demand of readers. At the same time, enhancing multimedia products, modern types of newspapers and especially video clips on Customs News.

The five-year journey had passed and moving forward to the future, the Editorial Board of Customs Magazine has made every effort to bring the Customs News to become a credible and valuable source of information contributing to Vietnam development when the country has signed and implemented a number of new generation free trade agreements and attract foreign businesses.