Deputy Minister Vu Thi Mai: Ministry of Finance strives to deploy trade facilitation project together with USAID

Delegates took group photo after meeting

At the meeting, Deputy Minister Vu Thi Mai congratulated Ann Marie Yastishock on her appointment to hold the position as New Mission Director in Vietnam.

The Deputy Minister believed that in the future, Mrs. Ann Marie Yastishock will develop a financial cooperation relationship between the Ministry of Finance of Vietnam and USAID to be increasingly close, practical and effective.

“The Ministry of Finance hoped that with personal work experience, in the future, Ms. Ann Marie Yastishock will continue to promote the financial cooperation between the two governments in general and between the Ministry of Finance of Vietnam and USAID in particular to a new level. We were ready to work closely with USAID to promote cooperation to ensure an effective, mutually beneficial relationship,” the Deputy Minister of Finance said.

The Ministry of Finance highly appreciated the financial and technical support and advice provided by USAID, especially USAID's support for the Trade Facilitation Project (TFP), thereby helping the Ministry of Finance improve customs legislation, deepen integration with countries around the world, improve national competitiveness and support the full implementation of international commitments to which Vietnam is a signatory.

In the future, the Ministry of Finance hoped to continue receiving financial and technical support from USAID for the socio-economic development of Vietnam in general and for the Ministry of Finance in particular. Focusing on a number of key areas which are strengths of USAID such as economic growth and public financial management, reforming the trade system and customs.

Currently, the Ministry of Finance receives USAID support through the Trade Facilitation Project (TFP), which is led by the General Department of Vietnam Customs as the Project Owner. The TFP project has been approved by the Prime Minister to implement from May 2019 with a total ODA grant of nearly $22 million and VND10 billion of reciprocal capital for the purpose of reform and standardisation, harmonise and simplifying administrative procedures in the field of import and export in accordance with international standards for the implementation of the Trade Facilitation Agreement of the World Trade Organization and the policy of reforming specialised inspection of import and export goods which has been determined by the Vietnam Government to be practical, timely and necessary, meeting the expectations of Vietnam in implementing new generation FTAs.

Deputy Minister Vu Thi Mai hoped that, despite being seriously affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, both sides would make their best efforts, with the most flexible solutions to continue implementing the project towards the set objectives, such as improving the efficiency of the Information Technology System and the National Single Window; improve the efficiency of specialised inspection activities; applying risk management and compliance management to customs management; enforce the TFP agreements and improve the effectiveness of the Trade Facilitation Committee; summarizing the Customs Development Strategy for the 2011-2020 period and building the Development Strategy for the 2021-2030 period; as well as developing customs-enterprise partnerships.

In response, Mrs. Ann Marie Yastishock expressed her admiration for the Government of Vietnam in effective prevention of the Covid-19 pandemic, while still developing positive economic growth in the context of the world economy facing many difficulties due to Covid-19.

The new USAID Mission Director in Vietnam affirmed that she will work closely with the Ministry of Finance on ongoing projects, and will continue to research to cooperate with the Ministry of Finance of Vietnam in many other areas.