The Ministry of Science and Technology's specialized inspection and improvement targets are quite general

	Specialized inspection has not really facilitated enterprise
	Deputy Prime Minister Vuong Dinh Hue: to cut 50% of the list of items subject to specialized inspection
	Saving over 50 million hours of storage for import-export goods

Operation at the representative office in Hai Phong City, QUATEST 1 - under the Ministry of Science and Technology. Photo: T.Binh.

At the National Single Window (NSW), ASEAN Single Window (ASW) and Trade Facilitation Conference recently held in Hanoi, the Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc and the Deputy Prime Minister Vuong Dinh Hue - the Head of Steering Committee for ASW, NSW and trade facilitation required ministries and sectors to strive to reduce the proportion of goods subject to specialized inspections to less than 15% and simplify 50% of the list of goods, products and procedures of specialized inspections.

In fact, the plans of many ministries such as the Ministry of Industry and Trade and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development also set specific figures in the above direction, but there are no clear objectives in the presentation of the Ministry of Science and Technology.

According to the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Ministry of Science and Technology has actively worked to improve the legal framework related to the work of specialized inspections.

Specifically, the products and goods subject to specialized inspections under the management of the Ministry of Science and Technology are strongly transferred to the post-clearance audits. Accordingly, products and goods subject to pre-clearance inspections have been reduced from 24 product groups to 2 product groups. As such, 91% of product groups and goods managed by the Ministry of Science and Technology have been transferred to the post-clearance audit mechanism, exceeding the target of Resolution 19, exceeding the target of ASEAN + 4 and completing the previous task for the first 9 months of 2018 according to the Government's plan.

The Ministry of Science and Technology has also reduced the list of 114 products and goods subject to quality control, especially products and goods without national technical regulations for management (26 products and goods of the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs).

As the focal point for promoting mutual recognition of Government-to-Government relationships in ASEAN such as the Mutual Recognition Agreement for Electricity and Electronics; pre-packaged food, etc., the Ministry of Science and Technology has also directed the conformity assessment bodies to accept test results for more than 42 testing organizations in countries such as Japan, Thailand, Malaysia, etc., and accelerated the assessment in the exporting country for nearly 35 businesses, which has helped reduce the time and costs for businesses.

However, regarding the target in the coming time, the speech by the Ministry of Science and Technology is very general as follows: "In the coming time, the Ministry shall continue to maintain and promote the above activities". Meanwhile, the list of commodities under the Ministry of Science and Technology 's specialized management is still large.

According to the reporter, in Decision 3482 / QĐ-BKHCN, dated 8 December 2017 of the Ministry of Science and Technology, there are hundreds of items under their management responsibility.

Most of the products under the Ministry's specialized management are transferred to post-clearance audits and 21 items belong to 3 groups (not two groups as reported). They include petrol, diesel fuel and biofuels; liquefied petroleum gas-LPG; helmets for motorcyclists, motorcycles, which are still carried out with inspections before clearance of goods.

The MARD proposes removing 152 commodity groups subject to specialized inspection VCN- The number of groups proposed to be removed by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development ...

Thus, in fact, the number of items subject to specialized inspections by the Ministry of Science and Technology has not been reduced much, but mainly changes in the mode of management (from inspections before clearance to inspections after clearance).