Long An Customs and Border Guard forces coordinate to combat smuggling cases

	Long An Customs actively supports businesses to voluntarily comply with the law
	Long An Customs commits to facilitate business

Deputy Director General of Vietnam Customs Luu Manh Tuong addresses the conference.

Effectively coordinate to implement 7 tasks

At the conference to review and evaluate the results of the coordination in performing tasks between the Customs and Border Guard under Coordination Regulation No. 3929/QC-BDBP-TCHQ dated September 4, 2019 between the Border Guard Command and the General Department of Vietnam Customs in Long An province, on September 24, 2024, the two forces reported outstanding achievements in effectively implementing seven tasks.

Deputy Director General of Vietnam Customs Luu Manh Tuong, and Major General Le Van Phuc, Deputy Commander of the Border Guard Command chaired the conference.

Assessing results of five-year implementation of the coordination regulations between the Long An Customs and Border Guard forces, representatives of the two forces reported that in order to achieve positive results, the two sides have clearly understood the functions and tasks, recognized the roles and responsibilities of each side in performing tasks, and regularly directed officers to effectively implement under the Coordination Regulation No. 3929/QC-BĐBP-TCHQ.

The two units have exchanged and received 795 pieces of information related to the protection of national sovereignty and border security, combat of crimes, smuggling and trade fraud across land border gates and seaports.

The two forces have effectively cooperated in inspecting and controlling incoming and outgoing vehicles and passengers, imported and exported goods at seaports as well as land border gates.

Since 2019, the two forces have inspected and controlled goods imported and exported across the land border gates, including 700,000 tons of imported and exported goods and over 1 million tons of exported, import, in-transit and temporarily imported and re-exported goods; and about 14 million tons of imported and exported goods and Customs branch transferred goods.

With a long border, in order to maintain national border security and sovereignty, the two forces have implemented solutions and strengthened patrols, inspections and closed control of the area.

In five-year implementation, the two sides have conducted 2,344 patrols with the participation of 11,720 officers and soldiers in land border gates and seaports.

Long An Customs Department and Long An Border Guard Command have detected 42 cases related to cross-border smuggling and illegal transportation, with the value of the infringing goods of over VND 8.3 billion.

The two authorities have coordinated to implement guiding documents on international agreements and treaties related to exit and entry control activities, imported and exported goods; facilitate the across-border transport of goods and people, exchange information on the management of temporary import-re-export and transit vehicles across border gates; provide information on exit and entry activities. The forces have connected the Electronic Border Procedures Portal of the Border Guard Command with the National Single Window Portal.

Baggage screening scanner machine need to be equipped

At the conference, Major General Le Van Phuc and Deputy Director General Luu Manh Tuong suggested the discussed contents for the two forces to further improve the effectiveness of coordination in the near future.

Deputy Director General Luu Manh Tuong directed that based on the actual situation, the conference should focus on discussing seven contents in the regulations and raise difficulties and problems and propose policies and solutions to overcome them.

Motivated by the orientation, customs branches and border guards exchanged and analyzed together. Accordingly, the two forces manage the area with a national border line of 134.906 km long through Long An province, with 5 border gates and 8 border crossings adjacent to Cambodia. The two forces perform the common task of managing and maintaining import-export activities and other law enforcement activities at three border gates.

The working group of the General Department of Vietnam Customs and the Border Guard Command inspect the actual situation at My Quy Tay Border Gate. Photo: T.H

The two sides have effectively developed and implemented the contents of the Plan, maintained the reporting regime, and exchanged information related to exit, entry, export, import activities and handled violations at border gates... However, there are still difficulties, obstacles and problems.

Specifically, the crime and law violations is increasingly complicated with many extremely sophisticated tricks; the control at border gates and border crossings is mainly performed by manual measures, making it difficult to early detect violations.

Additionally, the facilities, vehicles and tools to support the work of the two forces have not been equipped synchronously, failing to meet the requirements of the tasks, especially the security of information exchanged between the two forces.

Notably, the actual inspection shows that the infrastructure at My Quy Tay Border Gate has not been classified private exit - entry, export - import flows, and has not been equipped with goods and luggage scanners, sniffing dogs, etc., which affects the time and quality of performing tasks of the two forces.

Therefore, the two forces have proposed to be provided means and equipment for the inspection and control of people, vehicles, luggage, import and export goods; to build a set of criteria and methods for fast, direct, periodic and random information exchange between the two forces, etc. to improve coordination efficiency.

Deputy Director General Luu Manh Tuong said that, in short term, Long An Customs Department needs to conduct a survey and report to the General Department of Vietnam Customs to consider investing in necessary equipment for technical performance at the border gate. Some equipment can be jointly used between the two forces to promote efficiency and save cost for the state budget. In the long term, the Customs and Border Guard forces should consider planning and investing appropriately to ensure state management and contribute to local economic and social development.