Many measures to reform specialized inspection have been effective

	Abolish many administrative procedures related to specialized inspection of the natural resources and environment sector
	Draft Decree on the NSW towards socializing the specialized inspection
	The Ministry of Science and Technology's specialized inspection and improvement targets are quite general

Sampling for inspection of import and export goods at Da Nang port. Photo: N.Linh

Policies have been gradually revised and perfected

At Decision No. 2026 / QD-TTg dated 17th November 2015, the Prime Minister assigned 13 ministries and sectors to amend 87 legal documents on specialized management and inspection. According to a review by the General Department of Customs (Ministry of Finance), by September 2018, ministries and sectors have amended and supplemented 82/87 documents (94%), of which 9 ministries have completed: Ministry of Industry and Trade, Ministry of Planning and Investment, Ministry of Science and Technology, Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs, Ministry of Information and Communications, Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

Many documents have been amended and promulgated in the direction of facilitating enterprises, reducing the list of goods subject to specialized inspection, changing inspection methods, applying risk management in inspection, changing the inspection time from pre-customs clearance to post custom clearance for some goods, clarifying the list of goods with HS codes and abolishing inappropriate regulations.

Some outstanding documents such as Circular No. 07/2017 / TT-BKHCN dated 16th June 2017 of the Ministry of Science and Technology cut more than 90% of goods subject to quality inspection before Customs clearance; Decision No. 37/2017 / QD-TTg abolished Decision No. 50/2006 / QD-TTg on quality inspection of goods; Circular No. 23/2016 / TT-BCT dated 12th October, 2016 abolished Circular No. 37/2015 / TT-BCT dated 30th October 2015 of the Ministry of Industry and Trade regulating limits and inspection of content of formaldehyde and aromatic amines derived from azo colorants in textile products; Circular No. 18/2017 / TT-BCT dated 21st September 2017 of the Ministry of Industry and Trade abolished the quality inspection for more than 100 items of imported steels; and Decree No. 15/2018 / ND-CP dated 2nd February 2018 on food safety cut 95% of import shipments subject to State inspection on food safety ...

Measures to reform the management

The electronization of the specialized inspection procedures is also being actively implemented by the ministries along with the participation in the National Single Window. To date, 11 ministries and sectors have implemented 68 procedures on the National Single Window (NSW).

In particular, the Ministry of Finance has chaired and coordinated with other ministries and sectors to set up a specialized inspection portal in the NSW Portal. While pending the completion of the NSW Portal, Ho Chi Minh City Customs Department has taken the initiative in building the specialized inspection portal to address the requirements set for the specialized inspection. This program was implemented at the Sai Gon port zone 1 Customs Branch (Cat Lai port) since 15th June 2016, Tan Son Nhat International Airport Customs Branch and Express Cargo Customs Branch since 12th July 2016 to serve the specialized inspections at these areas.

At present, investment in facilities, resources and socialization of the specialized inspection are also focused on by the Ministry of Finance. The Ministry of Finance has upgraded the Center for Analysis and Classification of Imports and Exports to the Customs Verification Department under the General Department of Customs – a State management agency in charge of analysing and inspecting the standards, quality, quarantine and hygiene and safety standards for imports and exports upon the requests by the ministries or assignment by the Prime Minister.

The Verification Department has strengthened its capacity, facilities, and professional knowledge of quality inspection, food hygiene and safety inspection and is ready to perform its assigned tasks.

Currently, the Customs Verification has 6 verification branches with modern laboratories located in the key areas of imports and exports, and 4 mobile verification stations (mobile labs), which are ready to move to the border gates and perform the duty on site and provide accurate analysis results. Currently, the General Department of Customs is finalizing the scheme to submit to the Prime Minister to allow the customs authorities to participate in the pilot implementation of specialized inspection in the form of coordination, and tightening of the specialized management.

Meanwhile, the ministries also step by step socialize the specialized inspection. Currently, some specialized management ministries have authorized / appointed many agencies to carry out the specialized inspection for import and export goods.

For example, Government Decree 108/2017 / NĐ-CP dated 20th September 2017, stipulates that the State agency in charge of quality inspection of imported fertilizers is the Plant Protection Department under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development. The Plant Protection Department has authorized 8 units to inspect the quality of imported fertilizers.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade has appointed 11 agencies to conduct state inspection on food safety for imported food under the management of the Ministry of Industry and Trade.

Government Decree No. 36/2016 / ND-CP dated 20th September 2017 on management of medical equipment, stipulates that the classification of medical equipment must be carried out by an organization which meets conditions described in Article 7 of this Decree. The organization which meets all conditions will make an application for authorization to the Ministry of Health to conduct the classification of medical equipment in accordance with Decree 36/2016 / ND-CP.

There are still shortcomings

Despite many changes in specialized management and inspection, there are still shortcomings in this activity. The number of goods subject to specialized inspection still accounts for a large proportion (in 2017, the number of import declarations (shipments) subject to specialized management and inspection compared to the total imported shipments carrying out Customs procedures accounted 19.2%).

There are too many legal documents on specialized management and inspection with wide scope, many goods do not have HS codes, there is a lack of standards for inspection; the inspection regulations are overlapped, accordingly goods must carry out many procedures at the same time and are subject to many forms of management and specialized inspection by one ministry or many ministries, the amendment of legal documents on specialized management and inspection for import and export goods is still delayed.

The specialized inspection is mainly implemented by manual method, the risk management method has not been widely applied; the mutual recognition of inspection results has not been applied; the IT application to receive and handle dossiers and exchange data on specialized inspection has not been accelerated and database for information analysis and risk assessment of importers and exporters has not been established.

Approach to the specialized inspection and management policies on the Vietnam Customs Information Portal VCN - That was the guidance of the Customs authorities for enterprises in general and Korean enterprises ...

Resources (including human resource, finance, equipment and machinery) to perform the tasks of specialized inspection for import and export goods at border gates are still insufficient and weak. The socialization of specialized inspection has not been accelerated.