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Warehoue of Viet Long company in Po Peo Border Gate is desolate in 2023. Photo: T.B

Desolate Bi Ha Border Gate

The working report in 2022 and in the first five months in 2023 of Ly Van Border Gate Customs Branch showed the "zero results" (zero declaration, zero turnover and zero tax).

Manager Pham Anh Tung said the area includes two border gates including Ly Van and Bi Ha, some border crossings (Ky Soc, Pac Ty, Ban Khoong), and some checkpoints. Earlier, the import and export activities at the Branch showed positive results with the highest revenue of VND 20 billion.

However, due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and problems related to Decree 112/2014/ND-CP, the import and export activities in the area have not arisen.

"Although there are no import and export activities in the area, the Branch always assigns officers to perform tasks, even in holidays and new year to ensure the management, prevention and combat of smuggling. In the first months of the year, the Branch coordinated with other competent agencies to arrest a case of 4 kg of firecracker illegal transportation.

In 2022, the Branch coordinated with other enforcement forces to seize two cases of illegally transporting frozen goods and about 10 tons of infringing goods. In addition to patrolling and controlling, officers have focused on self-study to improve their qualifications," said by Deputy Manager Hoang Tan Hoi.

Without means of transport on highway

At Po Peo Border Gate, provincial road 213 has been upgraded and invested more than 200 billion. The local residents consider the road as the highway of Cao Bang. Although the infrastructure is spacious, import and export activities at Po Peo border gate are also quiet.

Mr. Nong Van Dong, manager of the site for gathering and inspecting goods of Ngan Ha, said that the company invested more than VND10 billion in this site with a total area of more than 4 hectares following regulations of the General Department of Vietnam Customs.

"Though we only operated for about one year (from the middle of 2019), we have had to pause until now due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and problems related to Decree 112. During the period of operation, the Branch arranged 10 employees, but now we only maintain two to manage properties. Due to inactivity for a long time, the houses and infrastructure of the yard are increasingly degraded, and then the risk of property theft increasing. We hope that the departments and agencies in the Central and Cao Bang province will soon remove these difficulties. It is difficult to restore import-export activities at the Po Peo border gate to help businesses recover their investment capital," said Mr Nong Van Dong.

According to the Director of the Po Peo Border Gate Customs Branch, the Branch manages four checkpoints (Ngan Ha, Viet Long, Duc Huy Cooperative, and South Thang Long). Previously, activities in the area were quite busy, and the Branch collected more than VND20 billion/ per year. But for about two recent years, import and export activities have been halted, so there are no declarations, turnover or budget revenues. The reason for the suspension is similar to that at the Ly Van border gate Customs Branch.

"Although there are no import-export activities, the Branch always maintains enough officers as prescribed to carry out the task of anti-smuggling. In 2022, the Branch coordinated with other authorities to arrest one drug trafficking case and two cases of illegal goods transportation. From the beginning of 2023, the Branch seized four cases, arrested four suspects and captured 210 kg of tobacco leaves; 4,500 packs of Marlboro cigarette," said Be Van Hai.

For localities with many difficulties like Cao Bang, developing the border gate economy is a very important solution to promote socio-economic development in the area; this is also the expectation of the people and the business community. Therefore, the local authority needs to have more drastic and urgent solutions to open up import and export activities and avoid wasting resources invested at sub-border gates and border-crossings located in the border gate economic zone, which have been approved by the Prime Minister, especially at Po Peo and Bi Ha sub-border gates.