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At the conference |
The Vietnam Confederation of Trade and Industry (VCCI) in collaboration with the General Department of Customs and the People's Committees of four provinces and cities, Hai Phong, Hai Duong, Hung Yen and Quang Ninh organized a ‘Dialogue Conference: Removing difficulties for enterprises in import-export activities in 4 provinces and cities Hai Phong, Quang Ninh, Hai Duong and Hung Yen’.
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| Vice President of VCCI Hoang Quang Phong speaks at the conference |
Speaking at the opening ceremony, Vice President of VCCI Hoang Quang Phong said that import-export and international trade are one of the key drivers of Vietnam's economy. In 2022 alone, the total import and export turnover of goods has reached US$732.5 billion, up 9.5 percent compared to 2021. In 2022, Vietnam posted a trade surplus of about $11.2 billion from export. Products from Vietnam are now present in over 200 countries and territories.
The total export turnover of enterprises in Hai Phong City, Quang Ninh Province, Hai Duong Province and Hung Yen Province in 2022 was estimated at approximately $46 billion, accounting for about 12.3 percent of the total export value of the country, said Mr. Hoang Quang Phong.
Therefore, the Government and ministries and agencies have made efforts to simplify import and export procedures by enhancing transparency in trade policies, and at the same time establishing mechanisms to deal with difficulties and obstacles of enterprises, such as implementing the national single window and ASEAN single window, applying information technology in customs clearance, post-clearance inspection and goods supervision. In recent years, ministries and responsible agencies have been simplifying administrative procedures to facilitate exporters.
Although there have been many improvements in administrative policies and procedures over the past time, Mr. Hoang Quang Phong disclosed that according to a survey on the level of enterprise satisfaction on the implementation of import-export administrative procedures carried out by the VCCI in collaboration with the General Department of Customs and the Trade Facilitation Project of the US Agency for International Development in July 2021, about 38 percent of businesses still face difficulties and obstacles when finding out information about import and export administrative procedures and about 24 percent of enterprises complained that frequent changes of regulations or legal policies have caused difficulties for production and business activities.
Therefore, the Vice President of VCCI said that the dialogue conference on March 2 should promote direct interaction and strengthen the cooperation relationship between the business community and relevant authorities, focusing on removing difficulties for the business community in four provinces including Hai Phong city, Quang Ninh province, Hai Duong province and Hung Yen province.
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| Deputy Director General of the Vietnam Customs Hoang Viet Cuong speaks at the conference |
Speaking at the dialogue conference, Deputy Director General of the Vietnam Customs Hoang Viet Cuong said that in the first two months of this year, import-export indicators and state budget revenue have shown that customs activities have bumped into difficulties. Through this dialogue conference, the customs authority wants to listen to the voice of the business community to solve difficulties together.
Mr. Hoang Viet Cuong also said that customs authorities have implemented solutions in the past time to remove obstacles for businesses. For instance, customs authorities have advised the Government, and the Ministry of Finance to issue a number of circulars such as Circular 47 to remove some difficulties for businesses in terms of time and procedures for submitting C/O (certificate of origin) and the Circular 82 on removing congestion at some seaports. The Vietnam Customs has also submitted a draft circular allowing enterprises to delay the submission of some documents in customs dossiers when importing and exporting.
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Customs staff check goods |
Mr. Cuong also said that the customs authority has so far achieved significant targets in its efforts to reform administrative procedures and apply digital transformation to reduce customs clearance time such as all customs procedures are automated and 99.8 percent of customs revenue has been done through electronic tax collection.
Average customs clearance for imports in 2022 was 36 hours 14 minutes 32 seconds, down nearly 19 minutes compared to 2021. The average customs clearance for exports in 2022 was 2 hours 43 minutes 9 seconds, down more than 17 minutes compared to 2021" said Mr. Hoang Viet Cuong.
The General Department of Customs also has a program to encourage businesses to automatically comply with customs regulations and laws, initially signed commitments with 200 businesses and was highly appreciated by international organizations for this program. This is also a solution to realize the goal of gradually increasing the rate of the green channel and gradually reducing the ratio of the yellow channel and the red channel in import and export control.
