The Customs Department of Ho Chi Minh City: Supporting FDI Enterprises

The enterprises carry out customs procedures at the customs sub-department in charge of investment management. Photo: T.H.

Paying attention to each enterprise

Mr. Vo Van Bong, Head of the Customs Sub-Department of investment management said that there were about 2,500 FDI enterprises that regularly carry out import-export procedures at his branches, with 23 different types of import-export goods. There are more than 30,000 customs declarations issued every day. In recent years, the Customs Sub-Department has implemented many reform programs to support FDI enterprises in approaching and grasping new documents and policies to implement properly and avoid errors. In particular, in 2018, many new documents come into effect, with many new contents affecting the export and import activities of enterprises, in addition to the requirement for businesses to study carefully and apply correctly, Customs officers in the unit are trained and researched to implement and help enterprises.

In addition, with the characteristics of FDI enterprises, after the General Department of Customs held a conference introducing Decree 59 and Circular 39, the Department has coordinated with Thai Son Software Company to organize a conference detailing new contents related to FDI enterprises as well as transmission techniques for more than 400 enterprises, helping businesses to understand and implement the contents of the new documents. At the same time, capturing immediately the obstacles encountered by enterprises to propose competent authorities to remove for facilitating businesses. Along with that, the Sub-Department has held a dialogue with enterprises who regularly carry out procedures, having paid attention to questions for each business.

With the motto of the business community and customs agencies as a reliable partner, along with development, the Customs Department of investment management is committed to continue to facilitate trade with practical action programs to raise budget revenue, collecting enough and correctly from the professional stages in the customs clearance to post-clearance audit. In order to guide the business community to comply with the law, to create a healthy business environment, to attract foreign investors

Paralleling with the facilitation, the Customs Office has also promptly discovered and corrected some cases where enterprises have not properly implemented the customs law in order to create a transparent investment environment. In the first 9 months of 2018, the Customs Sub-department of Investment Management has checked and increased the state budget to nearly VND100 billion through post-clearance inspection and price consultancy.

Organizing many seminars

According to the Customs Department of Ho Chi Minh City, for effective business support, from January 2018, the unit has developed plan 151/KH-HQHCM on implementing the program "Business community and Customs authorities are a reliable partner and will grow together in 2018".

Implementing this plan, the Customs Department of Ho Chi Minh City held many dialogues with business associations. In the first 9 months of 2018, the unit organized 20 periodical business dialogue meetings at the department or sub-department level to listen to problems and difficulties in the operation of enterprises to deal with problems that can be resolved within the authority, or report to the ministries, industries for resolution. Through the conferences, the Department has also promptly announced the new documents related to import-export policies for businesses, thereby creating confidence for the business community in the area. More than 1,400 companies attended the dialogue meetings with over 2,000 participants, responding to nearly 400 questions.

In addition, the Customs Department of Ho Chi Minh City also has a public mail box address, and a hotline for receiving responses and recommendations from individuals and organizations on the administrative procedures for timely and effective action. Cooperating with banks, state treasuries to pay online tax, creating favorable conditions for businesses and reducing time in customs clearance.

The support and facilitation of the Customs Department of HCM City has been appreciated by the business community. Mr Nicolas Audier, President of the European Business Associations in HCM City, said that the customs authority and the European business community have created a closer relationship, starting with the combination of training and discussing with enterprises. In order to better exchange goods between the Vietnamese and European markets, the dialogue between customs and enterprises is one of the driving forces of this relationship. Customs optimization is one of the issues promoting trade relations for European businesses.

"Decree 59 and Circular 39 have just been enforced with many new contents, the Customs Department of Ho Chi Minh City has organized many conferences for companies to properly implement. Especially, during the implementation, customs authorities have guided and solved problems related to the implementation of these contents for enterprises," said Nicolas Audier.