The smuggling situation is controlled strictly in An Giang

Director of An Giang Customs Department Nguyen Thanh Toan

An Giang is entering the peak of the flood season, what is your assessment of the situation of smuggling and trade fraud in the area?

Smuggling activities in An Giang border areas have been relatively under control, with local authorities maintaining good control over the area and no major smuggling rings. However, small-scale smuggling activities still occur in border and inland areas. Border customs branches have detected and seized several cases of illegal transportation of money, foreign currency, gold, and other items across the border.

Smugglers primarily use the method of dividing goods into smaller shipments for transportation in multiple batches. In particular, taking advantage of the rainy season, smugglers can use motorized watercraft to transport goods quickly. Nonetheless, smuggling and trade fraud remain under the control of border management authorities and there have been no significant developments.

With management areas at 5 border gates, what solutions has An Giang Customs Department implemented to prevent smuggling, trade fraud, and counterfeit goods, sir?

The management areas of the An Giang Customs Department is very extensive. For example, at the Tinh Bien International Border Gate, the customs authorities' jurisdiction covers the entire Tinh Bien ward, including Tinh Bien market, with approximately 4,000 households and over 19,000 people; at the Vinh Xuong International Border Gate, the customs authorities' jurisdiction includes the entire Vinh Xuong commune...

To manage such areas, including residential areas, the customs force has implemented flexible operational control measures to suit the actual situation. These measures focus on dissemination and mass mobilization to identify and gather local information. Through this, they can identify key areas and targets, and then develop further measures such as subject investigation, situation investigation, and building a base of collaborators...

With a wide jurisdiction and limited personnel, the customs authorities must focus on key solutions and priorities, without spreading resources too thin... In short, the customs authorities must identify key areas and targets, and then apply appropriate customs control measures to achieve high efficiency.

As you just said, the management area is large, but the number of soldiers is small, so to effectively control the area and prevent violations, how has An Giang Customs Department coordinated with functional forces, sir?

In addition to the specialized tasks of each force, An Giang province has inter-agency inspection teams, including customs, police, border guards, and market management. In terms of policy, the An Giang Provincial Party Committee and People's Committee, as well as district and city levels, are very determined in directing the fight against smuggling and trade fraud. With the maintenance of inter-agency inspection teams, as well as the anti-smuggling forces under the 389 Steering Committee, there has been coordinated cooperation, very decisive and resolute implementation in area control; inter-agency cooperation in combating smuggling along the border has promptly prevented the illegal transportation of goods; contributing to significantly curbing smuggling in the area. As a result, the situation of smuggling and trade fraud in the area has been tightly controlled.

Although the situation of smuggling, trade fraud, and illegal transportation of goods has not been complicated in the recent past, we cannot be subjective in the last months of the year, especially around the Lunar New Year, when smugglers often take advantage of people's increased demand for goods, especially consumer goods, to increase smuggling. Therefore, to effectively carry out this task, An Giang Customs needs to perform well a number of tasks, including effectively implementing customs control measures, paying special attention to mass mobilization.

Another important task is cooperation with other forces. This work must have the consensus and support of the Provincial Party Committee, People's Committee, as well as the assistance and support of other sectors and agencies, especially the forces with which the customs authorities have signed cooperation regulations; it is necessary to maintain and effectively implement these cooperative relationships...

The unit’s work of mobilizing and communicating the masses not to assist in smuggling has also been effective. Could you share about the methods that An Giang Customs Department will continue to implement in the coming time?

Regarding dissemination, in addition to the mass mobilization measures as I mentioned above, the leadership of the An Giang Customs Department always instructs customs agencies at border gates and Customs Enforcement Teams to pay attention to carrying out this work well for import-export enterprises and people entering and exiting the border. At the same time, besides the forces in charge direct communication at the border, the customs authorities must take advantage of the opportunity to mobilize and propagate legal regulations on the prevention and control of smuggling and trade fraud so that people understand and agree to comply with the regulations.

Through dissemination work, it has been shown that many people have a good understanding, and they have provided the customs authorities with important information to serve the fight against smuggling. Thus, mass communication is one of the very important solutions that the An Giang Customs Department will continue to focus on in the coming time. Besides, the unit regularly innovates the forms and content of dissemination to suit each target group and the actual conditions of the locality, focusing on key areas, routes, and regions; at the same time, mobilize people to actively detect and denounce violations, not participate in, assist, or cover up violations.

Thank you!