Deputy Director General Hoang Viet Cuong welcomes Deputy Director General of Laos Customs

	Strengthening inter-sectoral coordination to improve cross-border trade transaction index
	The importance of building a centralized interdisciplinary risk management center

At the meeting, Deputy Director General Hoang Viet Cuong gladly and warmly welcomed Deputy General Director of Lao Customs Vongvanhpheng Phoumsavanh and the delegation of Laos Customs to visit and work with Vietnam Customs on the electronic customs clearance system.

This is the first time Deputy Director General Vongvanhpheng Phoumsavanh has visited and worked with Vietnam Customs in the capacity of Deputy Director General. Vietnam Customs will make every effort in cooperation not only within the bilateral framework but also in multilateral forums to which both sides are members such as ASEAN and WCO.

Over the past 60 years, Vietnam-Laos relations have achieved many achievements in all aspects, including economic cooperation with bilateral trade growing at an average of 10% per year in the period 2016-2020. Despite many negative impacts of the Covid-19 epidemic as well as geopolitical fluctuations in the world, trade exchange between the two countries in 2021 and 2022 still has growth.

The scene of the meeting.

Specifically, in 2022, two-way turnover reached USD 1.37 billion, up 33.3% compared to 2020; in 2022, reaching USD 1.7 billion, an increase of nearly 30% compared to 2021. The above growth is due to the contribution of the two Customs authorities through the implementation of measures to facilitate trade. In particular, in 2022, the two countries celebrated the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations with many major activities being held both in Vietnam and Laos.

In the past 3 years, due to the Covid-19 epidemic situation, the Customs agencies of the two countries have not been able to carry out cooperative activities as expected. Now, operations have returned to normal, Vietnam Customs hopes to continue implementing cooperation plans to further strengthen the friendly relationship between the two agencies.

Deputy General Director Hoang Viet Cuong emphasized that this year, Vietnam Customs will host the Conference of General Directors of Vietnam - Laos Customs. This is the first General Directors’ Conference to be held after 3 years of interruption due to the epidemic. Therefore, the event will be an opportunity for the two sides to discuss more deeply about the orientation and form of cooperation in the coming time. Vietnam Customs hopes that cooperation activities will be carried out effectively and bring many benefits to both sides.

Also according to Deputy Director General Hoang Viet Cuong, currently the two Customs authorities are carrying out cooperation activities according to the agreed documents on professional fields, however, building a higher legal basis meeting the needs as well as expanding the cooperation contents between the two Customs authorities is very necessary to further deepen the cooperation relationship. Accordingly, on the basis of the exchanged draft Government-level Agreement between Vietnam and Laos in the field of customs, Vietnam Customs hopes to soon negotiate and sign this Agreement.

Speaking at the meeting, Deputy Director General Vongvanhpheng Phoumsavanh said that Vietnam Customs and Laos Customs are in the process of strong transformation. Therefore, customs modernization has always been focused by both sides in order to increase management efficiency as well as facilitate legal trade.

In particular, the application of information technology in professional activities is one of the important contents in customs modernization. This is considered an area of cooperation that both sides are interested in.

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Deputy Director General Vongvanhpheng Phoumsavanh hoped that the visit and working session of the Lao Customs delegation this time to exchange experiences on the electronic customs clearance system would bring many good results.