Offering solutions to enhance the rank of cross-border trade transactions index

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Deputy Director General Hoang Viet Cuong addressed at the meeting. Photo: t.H

Target to reduce 15 places in the rank

At the meeting, Deputy Director General Hoang Viet Cuong said that World Bank has measured the cross-border trade transactions index from 2011 to present date. Annually, this organization will reevaluate every May.

This index assesses the efficiency of state management of a country, thereby assessing the Government's operation for import and export activities. In 2019, Vietnam was ranked at 100/190 countries, economies (previously, Vietnam ranked 94th in the ASEAN 4 group, but then dropped a rank).

Therefore, at the beginning of 2019, the Government issued Resolution 02, which defines specific targets on the cross-border trade transactions index. Determines goals for 3 years (from 2019-2021) that it must reduce 10-15 places. In the short term, it must reduce 3-5 places in 2019, striving to rank 85th of 190 countries, economies on the cross-border trade transactions index by 2021.

“In order to achieve this index, agencies need to study and provide solutions and action plans for 3 years. At the same time, immediately handle urgent related issues from now until May 2019 - the period of World Bank's assessment”- Deputy Director General said.

Deputy Director General Hoang Viet Cuong said that the Prime Minister assigned responsibilities to the Ministry of Finance and the General Department of Vietnam Customs to chair and coordinate with ministries and sectors to achieve the goal of improving the across-border trade transactions index. In which, the Customs sector will minimize procedure, paper and customs clearance time of import and export goods and costs for enterprises.

As a performance department, the Director of Ho Chi Minh City Customs Department Dinh Ngoc Thang said that there are many difficulties in reducing customs procedures and clearance time. The department has reviewed to identify shortcomings on procedures and policies to propose solutions. Ho Chi Minh City Customs Department is aiming at electronic transactions, optimizing solutions and reducing Customs clearance time for enterprises.

Coordination in trade facilitation

Attending the meeting, representatives of a number of specialized management agencies, business associations, warehouse, yard, port operators, import-export enterprises and etc., highly agreed and unified the coordination in trade facilitation for import and export activities and improvement of the rank of cross-border trade transactions index.

Offering solutions on the coordination of the port operators, Mr. Nguyen Nang Toan, Deputy General Director of Sai Gon Newport Corporation said that the Corporation has regularly coordinated with Ho Chi Minh City Customs Department in general and Sai Gon Seaport Customs Branch of Zone 1 in particular, to deploy many solutions and apply information technology to provide the best facilitation for customs clearance of enterprises. Most recently, Sai Gon NewPort Corporation and Ho Chi Minh City Customs Department have agreed on 9 solution groups to quickly implement customs clearance for enterprises complying well with Customs law in importing goods via Cat Lai port.

Representing specialized inspection units, Mr. Mai Van Sung, Deputy Director of Quality Assurance and Testing Center 3 said that as per the Measurement Law, the quality inspection of goods is approved according to the sample. When importing goods with the approved sample, the enterprise shall not be subject to inspection. “Enterprises should study the law before taking goods, because currently the specialized inspection is not stipulated in the Measurement Law" - Mr. Sung noted.

For solutions to improve the traffic congestion affecting the time of transporting goods of enterprises, representatives of Ho Chi Minh City Transportation Department said that Cat Lai port and Tan Son Nhat airport face the same difficulty because there is only one way into these 2 ports. Currently, these two ports only exploit the current infrastructure, while the projects are still being implemented. Currently, the congestion point at Cat Lai port at My Thuy intersection (District 2) has been resolved, there is no longer a traffic jam in this area.

Concluding the meeting, Deputy Director General Hoang Viet Cuong said that the units related to the goods clearance have the same assessment that the cross-border trade transactions index has for reflecting the service quality of the management agencies and service enterprises for import and export activities. This is of national prestige and it is also the prestige of each sector to enhance responsibility and create favorable conditions for the business community.

As the leading agency for the improvement of the cross-border trade transactions index, the General Department of Vietnam Customs has recorded comments from units and immediately implemented the action plans to report to the Prime Minister.

For the current plan, over the past time, Ho Chi Minh City Custom Department has improved to effectively implement trade facilitation and continued to review imported and exported goods, including focusing on the 2 commodity groups that the World Bank is assessing (HS code 8708 and HS code 85). Then select the list of commodity groups with high revenue, especially commodity groups that still have shortcomings in specialized inspection to remove obstacles. Properly implement and optimize operational processes; strengthen risk management. First of all, prioritize the handling of the above mentioned commodity groups.

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At the same time, Ho Chi Minh City Customs Department lists the goods subject to specialized inspection which still have overlaps and shortcomings for immediate reporting and handling. Coordinate with Sai Gon New Port Corporation to arrange reasonably cargo for physical inspection and specialized inspection to shorten the time of inspection and customs clearance for imported goods via Cat Lai Port.