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Minister of Finance Dinh Tien Dung praised the achievements of the General Department of Customs in the patriotic emulation campaignfor the 2015-2020period. Photo: Quang Hung

General Department of Customs has emulated and made many achievements

The Minister said that, after 75 years of construction and development, associated with the history of the country's revolutionary struggles, Vietnam Customs has been constantly growing and making many important contributions to the construction and development of the Finance sector and socio-economic construction and development, as well as protection of national sovereignty.

Amid complicated developments in global politics and economy, natural disasters, epidemics, and escalating trade tensions which have significantly affected domestic economic development, Vietnam Customs has proactively advised the Ministry of Finance on many effective measures to implement the State management policy in the field of customs for import and export goods and vehicles in entry and exit, while ensuring a healthy environment for domestic economic activities as well as facilitating international trade.

Minister Dinh Tien Dung noted that with the current trend of integration and opening up of the country, the customs system has taken confident and proactive steps in the integration process. This is an indispensable requirement to gradually bring customs operations in accordance with international standards and practices, contributing to creating a close economic and trade link between the world and Vietnam.

Praising the achievements, the Minister said that in the past five years, along with the overall success of the Finance sector, the General Department of Customs has emulated and made many considerable achievements in many fields.

In terms of institutional reform, the General Department of Customs has advised the Ministry of Finance and competent authorities to issue synchronously and promptly many legal documents in the customs field, especially the development and issuance of documents to specify the Customs Law 2014 with many reforms on customs procedures, strong IT application in the implementation of administrative procedures; simplification of customs documents and enhancement of the application of modern customs management methods.

In terms of customs modernization, the General Department of Customs has effectively run the electronic customs clearance system VNACCS/VCIS, with over 99.65% of enterprises participating in the implementation of electronic customs procedures at 100% of customs units nationwide. In particular, in this period, the General Department of Customs has formally developed and launched the National Single Window and ASEAN Single Window. This is an important step in integration, supporting and facilitating importation and exportation of goods.

The implementation of above measures has contributed to reducing costs, time and human resources for enterprises during customs clearance. Accordingly, the time for cross-border clearance of import goods decreased from 170 hours in 2015 to 132 hours in 2019; for export goods from 140 hours in 2015 to 105 hours in 2019.

Thereby, it has created favorable conditions and strongly promoted import and export activities and trade in goods. As a result, it was the first time that Vietnam's import and export turnover in 2019 exceeded US$517 billion and saw a trade surplus of over US$10 billion.

Regarding the implementation of the State budget collection task, amid a complicated international political and economic situation; andour country which has been integrating more deeply with other countries in the world and the region, the General Department of Customs has carried out drastic and synchronous solutions to collect state budget and combat revenue losses and collect tax debts. As a result, in the 2015-2019 period, the General Department of Customs successfully completed the task of State budget collection and exceeded the state budget estimates assigned by the National Assembly, the Prime Minister and the Ministry of Finance.

In terms of combat against smuggling and trade fraud, as a standing agency of the 389 National Steering Committee of the Ministry of Finance, the General Department of Customs has advised the Ministry of Finance to work with other ministries, sectors, and authorities to strengthen the combat against smuggling, trade fraud, counterfeit goods and illegal cross-border transportation of goods, contributing to protecting economic security, social safety and consumers’ interests. Many outstanding victories by anti-smuggling forces andbig and important cases related to national security were highly appreciated by the Government, the Prime Minister and other agencies.

Regarding the work of streamlining, the Minister assessed that, in the context of the constantly increasing workload, the General Department of Customs has thoroughly grasped and strictly followed the Central Resolutions on apparatus streamlining, the Politburo's Resolutions on staff streamlining and restructuring the contingent of cadres, civil servants and public employees. Accordingly, 13 divisions under departments at the General Department, 37 divisions and equivalent level, 12 customs branches under provincial, inter-provincial and municipal customs departments and 239 units (teams) under customs branches have been cut.

In addition, the General Department of Customs has also tightened discipline in the sector, creating strength of collective solidarity, overcoming all difficulties and challenges to strive to fulfill the assigned political tasks.

In other fields, the General Department of Customs has also achieved many positive results, making important contributions to the overall achievements of the Finance sector.

Continued efforts, initiative in creation, emulation for achievements

According to Minister Dinh Tien Dung, in order to obtain the aforementioned achievements, first of all, it was the attention of leadership and direction of the Government, the Prime Minister and the Ministry of Finance; and the constant effort of the collective of cadres, civil servants, officials and employees of the General Department of Customs, in which there was a very important role in the patriotic emulation campaign of the General Department of Customs.

Over the past five years, the General Department of Customs has launched many emulation campaigns with practical objectives, targets and contents which closely followed the key political tasks; and renewed contents and forms of emulation campaigns

Recognizing outstanding achievements in the past, the General Department of Customs has been accredited by the Party and State and awarded many emulation titles and noble commendation forms.

Minister Dinh Tien Dung emphasized that the world and regional situation is forecasted to continue to have unpredictable changes; strategic competition, geopolitical tensions and trade conflicts between some countries andbig economies and increasing protectionism; complicated Covid-19 pandemic in the world and in Vietnam, negatively affecting economic growth, trade, import-export and investment activities.

Facing such difficulties and challenges, the General Department of Customs should continue to launch and renew patriotic emulation campaigns, ensuring practicality and specificity; sets out specific targets, objectives, and products on the basis of adhering to the following key political tasks:

To continue to promote institutional reform, administrative procedure reform, modernize customs, facilitate trade and import and export activities to shorten the time and costs of customs clearance.

To perform the task of State budget collection, strive to complete and exceed the assigned State budget revenue estimates.

To improve the fight against smuggling, trade fraud and counterfeit goods, fraud of goods origin, infringement of intellectual property rights, creating a fundamental and strong change in this task.

To promote democracy and preserving internal solidarity; continue to thoroughly grasp, propagate, disseminate and effectively deploy policies and guidelines on emulation and commendation in the entire sector.

To launch many emulation movements to successfully fulfill assigned political tasks; to reform and improve the quality of commendation; enhance the propaganda, development, replication and spreading of advanced examples, new models, new factors, collectives and individuals with many initiatives and solutions in building the units.

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The Minister suggested that the General Department of Customs as the "gatekeeper of the economy" continues to promote the 75-year tradition of solidarity, consensus, and uphold the sense of responsibility of each collective and each individual in their performance; make efforts and proactive creation and join emulation to gain many excellent achievements and successfully implementing the goal of building Vietnam Customs "Professionalism - Transparency - Efficiency"; making an important contribution to the Finance sector in successfully implementing the financial-budget tasks in the 2016-2020 period and the following years.