Remarkable points in the National Single Window Decree

	Operational functions and principles of National Single Window
	Efforts to reduce customs clearance time
	Measuring satisfaction of businesses in the implementation of administrative procedures via NSW

Customs officials of Cha Lo Border Gate Customs Branch (Quang Binh Customs Department) handle procedures for enterprises. Photo: Q. HUNG

The premise for implementing the National Single Window mechanism

The NSW Decree stipulates the implementation of administrative procedures for import-export goods and goods in transit; vehicles on exit, entry and in transit under the NSW, ASW; specialized inspection for import and export goods and goods in transit; management, operation, exchange of data through the NSW Portal.

According to the representative of the Legal Department (the General Department of Customs), the drafting unit, to fulfill the objective of making ASEAN a general market, ASEAN member countries have signed the Framework Agreement on integration of priority areas, which reflects the countries' commitment to developing the NSW mechanism, including the processing of commercial documents at national and regional levels (Article 8 (F)). The Agreement to build and implement the ASW mechanism has also been signed by member countries, including Vietnam. Member States have completed the formulation and signed the Protocol on the legal framework for the implementation of the ASW mechanism and are in the process of implementing procedures for approval.

In order to create a premise for the implementation of the ASW, the establishment of the NSW mechanism in member countries is extremely necessary. In Vietnam, the NSW mechanism has been officially implemented since November 2014, so far 14 ministries and sectors have been officially connected. By September 30, there were 178 administrative procedures implemented on the NSW mechanism with over 2.4 million records and over 32,000 participating enterprises.

Vietnam has officially exchanged C/O form D with six countries, including: Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Brunei and Cambodia. As of September 30, Vietnam received 102,647 C / O from other countries; Vietnam sent 175,358 C / O abroad. At the same time, the Ministry of Finance has worked with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to prepare technical conditions for exchanging information on ASEAN customs declarations (with Indonesia and Thailand) and plant quarantine certificates (with Indonesia). They are currently preparing messages,tests and connection tests.

However, the implementation has exposed shortcomings, overlaps and inadequacies from the legal provisions, manual implementation methods to interdisciplinary coordination such as: there are too many requirements on unnecessary information, documents, duplications and overlapsamong agencies; the level of standardization, simplification and harmonization of administrative procedures is still low; there is a lack of a legal basis for the responsibility of ministries and sector in information sharing on implementation of administrative procedures. Also, the provisions of the agreements should be codified in order to ensure the connection and exchange of information with global trading partners. Therefore, in order to expand the implementation, the NSW Decree has given uniform and consistent provisions on the subjects, dossiers and procedures when applying the NSWmechanism to create a legal basis.

The NSW Decree is developed with 43 articles, divided into 6 chapters. Regarding regulations on administrative procedures under the NSW, ASW, the Decree provides a legal basis for simplification, harmonization and electronic deployment of administrative procedures for import and export goods and goods in transit; people and vehicles on exit, entry and in transit through the NSW and ASW; and the management and operation of the NSW Portal.

Accordingly, the provisions on administrative procedures under the NSW, includes 7 Articles (from Article 11 to Article 17 of Chapter II), which stipulates the user registration, user account revocation, the use of digital signatures, implementation of administrative procedures, administrative records, conversion of documents, receipt and handling of problems and incidents. The provisions on administrative procedures for import and export goods and goods in transit through the NSW, includes 12 articles (from Article 18 to Article 27, Chapter III) which provide for declaration of documents in administrative records, receipt and handling of declared information, response, information exchange process and specialized processing system.

Shifting from pre-clearance to post-clearance inspection

From 2014 to the present, the Government has made great efforts in directing the implementation of key tasks and solutions to improve the business environment and enhance national competitiveness. Although ministries and agencies have made great efforts in implementing the project to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of specialized inspection activities under the Prime Minister's Decision No. 2026 / QD-TTgdated November 17, 2015. The specialized inspection of import goods still has limitations such as lack of transparency, predictability, and consistency in the legal system on specialized inspection as well as in the implementation; inspection rate during the customs clearance has not significantly decreased, increasingtime and costs for enterprises.

On the other hand, the list of goods subject to specialized inspection of some ministries is still remarkable. Many items do not have HS codes, so it is not consistent in how to understand and apply, leading to difficulties in application of information technology to automate the inspection process.

Therefore, in order to overcome the above-mentioned shortcomings and create a legal basis to implement the solutions recommended by experts to improve the business environment, the NSW Decree aims to unify most specialized inspection activities towards shifting from pre-clearance inspection to post-clearance inspection on the basis of applying risk management and assessing the enterprises’ compliance; publicize inspection methods and criteria through the promulgation of technical standards and regulations; and handle overlaps in specialized inspection.

The NSW Decree also aims to establish an interdisciplinary coordination mechanism for specialized inspection on the basis of information connection through the NSW. In particular, the Decree also creates a unified legal basis for comprehensive reform of specialized inspection activities towards reducing the number of goods subject to specialized inspection during the customs clearance stage, facilitating import-export activities, making specialized inspection transparent through the promulgation of inspection standards, regulations and methods; ensuring the consistency of the system of legal documents, overcoming overlaps, conflicts and inadequacies in specialized inspection documents for import and export goods andfacilitating imports and exports.

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Chapter III of the Decree consists of12 Articles divided into 2 sections, which provides administrative procedures for import and export goods and goods in transit through the NSW Portal and the regulations on specialized inspection for import and export goods and goods in transit. Accordingly, the principles of specialized inspection for import and export goods; cases of exemption from specialized inspection when importing; customs clearance of import and export goods subject to specialized inspection; responsibilities of declarants, specialized inspection agencies and conformity assessment organizations; management responsibilities of ministries and sectors, are specified.