The Ba Ria-Vung Tau Customs: focus on developing the Customs – Business partnership

The leaders of the Ba Ria – Vung Tau Customs Department have dialogue to remove difficulties for oil and gas enterprises. Photo: Nguyen Hue.

The Ba Ria – Vung Tau Customs Department said that in order to promote partnership development between Customs – Businesses and stakeholders, from the beginning of the year, the Department issued the plan and consolidated the Customs – Businesses Consultant Team, simultaneously, focussing all officials and employees in the unit on developing the Customs – Businesses partnership. Since early this year, besides the new policy deployment to the business community such as the Customs Law 2014, the Law on export - import duty and relevant policies and legislation, the Ba Ria – Vung Tau Customs Department also posted publicly the administrative procedures in Customs procedure locations, maintained and improved the quality of local websites to become an effective information channel of the business community, simultaneously, the Department was receiving and answering business problems online.

Besides, leaders of the Department also directed their units to timely guide and support business problems in the implementation process of Customs policies and laws recently enacted. In November 2016, the Ba Ria – Vung Tau Customs Department settled nearly 70 cases of business problems related to export-import activities. In order to support businesses closely and effectively, from the beginning of the year, the Ba Ria – Vung Tau Customs Department regularly organized consultant and dialogue conferences with companies such as the consultant conference “The business problems arisen in importing bulk goods” in the Cai Mep Port Customs Branch; the thematic consultant conference on Customs procedures, and Customs inspection and supervision for imported goods to produce goods for export in the Phu My Port Customs Branch. These conferences helped businesses seize new management methods of Customs for export-import, the tax refund procedures, and the settlement reports on the use of raw materials according to fiscal year.

In addition to the thematic consultant conferences held on the characteristics of each branch, the Ba Ria – Vung Tau Customs Department also collaborated with businesses and other provincial departments to organize dialogue conferences with export-import businesses in the province. For example, the Department collaborated with the Tan Cang Saigon Corporation to hold a dialogue conference with port companies, shipping lines and Customs agents with the participation of 170 companies. At the conference, the leaders of the Ba Ria – Vung Tau Customs Department and the Tan Cang Saigon Corporation acquired and solved problems and removed difficulties for port businesses, the export-import transport companies, simultaneously, offered solutions to improve the quality of services in the port system of Cai Mep - Thi Vai.

At the end of last September, the Ba Ria – Vung Tau Customs Department cooperated with VCCI Vung Tau Branch to hold a dialogue conference with 100 enterprises in the province. Most recently, at the end of last October, the Ba Ria – Vung Tau Customs Department organized a dialogue conference with oil and gas contractors to resolve difficulties of enterprises in implementing Customs procedures. The positive spirit of the Ba Ria – Vung Tau Customs Department in supporting business is always appreciated highly by the business community in the province.

According to the Ba Ria – Vung Tau Customs Department, to continue to promote the Customs – Business partnerships, the unit will cooperate and exchange regularly with the export-import enterprises in the province to catch information, solve business problems in the implementation of Customs procedures, and grow Customs - Business partnerships in 2017 in the province. Besides, the Department will conduct surveys to assess satisfaction of businesses in the area, direct the Customs Branches in the border gates and ports organize the thematic consultant conferences; cooperate with the VCCI Vung Tau Branch to hold annual Customs – Business dialogue conferences. Along with that, the Department will continue to maintain the training and promotion of activities to the Customs officials and the business community for Customs policies and laws recently enacted. The unit will promote and mobilize companies to join the Customs – Business partnerships. Up to the present time, there have been two companies recognized to be AEOs in the Ba Ria – Vung Tau Customs Department, the Vietnam – Russia Joint Venture Company– Vietsovpetro and the Tong Hong Tanery Company.