HCM City Customs Department builds professional force for development of digital customs

HCM City Customs Department increases the rate of goods inspected via container screening. Photo: T.H

Leading department in administrative procedure reform

We visit 1st Zone Sai Gon Seaport Customs Branch where we implement customs clearance for the imports and exports across Cat Lai Port with the largest quantity of goods. However, few enterprises submit dossiers on the peak days before National day September 2. The branch’s Deputy Manager Do The Manh said that the branch has implemented customs clearance for about over 2,000 import and export declarations on average per day.

The volume of cleared goods surges before holidays and New Year. However, all customs declarations have been declared online and the number of declarations classified into the Green chanel increases, so the number of enterprises submitting paper dossiers gradually decreases.

The checkpoints at customs branches in seaports, airports, and processing zone have also suffered from this situation

Over the past time, HCM City Customs Department has promoted I.T. applications in customs management and operation. Deputy Director of the Department Do Quang Thanh said that the city department has smoothly run 28 software built by the General Department of Vietnam Customs under three main groups, including the core software group of an automated system for customs clearance; the satellite software group supporting customs clearance with four software; the software group for issuing a decision with 17 software; the supportive software group for specializing operation of each operational unit with six software.

The Department has actively developed I.T. applications to support its specialized operation. The Department has used integrated application modules on the HCAS system in digitalizing operations such as document management and work administration, monitoring conclusions and direction of leaders, monthly assessing the performance of officers and managing online the leave of officers; providing operational support to officers on product policy, analysis and classification, risk management, goods storage, settlement reports, and monitoring of declaration status in all customs process; running HCAS-OTT application to exchange internal information between groups, and officers in the Department, helping to quickly remove difficulties and problems in the performance of official duties.

Currently, the city customs department has run the I.T. system in a stable manner, meeting requirements in customs processes and key customs operations such as implementing customs procedures, handling violations, risk management, post-clearance audit, and online public services. Motivated by remarkable achievement in customs modernization, the Department ranks in the top of the Public Administration Reform Index

Training human resources for digital transformation

According to Deputy Director Do Thanh Quang, to ensure the human resource for digital transformation and digital customs, the Department has established a Steering Team for the digital transformation of the Department; issued the Digital Transformation Plan to 2025 with orientation to 2030; sent officers to participate in the working group of the Project 6 on National Digital Transformation; training officers on the Industrial Revolution 4.0, basic knowledge of digital transformation, skills in working in the digital environment, skills on exploiting customs statistics, analyzing and processing digital data.

The Department has organized training courses and intensive training courses on I.T. systems based on Technology Revolution 4.0 for officers, meeting the requirements of deployment, management, operation and ensuring the security of the digital customs system.

The city customs department has built a team of cybersecurity experts to promptly monitor, prevent and coordinate in handling errors related to network security, administration, and operation, and ensure information security of the Department’s equipment, software, and database.

At the end of July 2022, the Department launched an emulation movement on digital government and digital transformation.

Recently, the General Department of Vietnam Customs has assigned about 40 officers to the Department who are young officers with professional qualifications. These officers will continue to be trained to add more human resources for the modernization and digital transformation of the Department shortly.

Besides, the Department focuses on developing I.T. infrastructure. Currently, the Department’s I.T. technical infrastructure has been upgraded by the General Department of Vietnam Customs in many phases under the centralized processing model, and applied the advanced technologies. As a result, the Department is one of the three large customs departments equipped with modern facilities by the country’s top customs regulator. In addition, the Department actively upgrades server systems and transmission lines for running the system.

Shortly, the Department will continue to apply I.T. infrastructure to meet the requirements of digital transformation and Digital Customs to ensure consistency, stability and flexibility; develop new applications and services based on digital infrastructure, and ensure the ability to use digital data and intelligent analysis tools to promptly make accurate decisions in customs management, meeting the needs of automatic processing in all customs process; carry out customs procedures anytime, anywhere, on any devices.