The overview of the meeting. Photo: Quang Hung

Deputy Director General of Vietnam Customs Mai Xuan Thanh chaired the meeting.

At the meeting, Deputy Director General of Vietnam Customs Mai Xuan Thanh said the centralized information technology system for the National Single Window and the ASEAN Single Window will be connected with ministries, government agencies, businesses, importers, exporters, and port, warehouse and yard operators. Therefore, the customs and relevant agencies will benefit from the system.

The system will process administrative procedures for imports and exports, and connect with the relevant agencies’ system, strengthening the management capacity of the state agencies, bringing benefits to businesses, and reducing costs for society.

At this meeting, a representative of the Customs Statistics and Information Technology Department provided initial ideas of the master project.

As of October 2021, 235 administrative procedures of 13 ministries and government agencies with about 4.1 million records of about 49,500 enterprises carrying out procedures via the National Single Window.

The implementation of the National Single Window and the ASEAN Single Window basically meet the requirements of expanding the connection of ministries and government agencies, and quickly processing administrative procedures.

It is necessary to gradually build the information technology infrastructure of the ministries and government agencies to deploy the National Single Window and the ASEAN Single Window; internalize and amend and supplement the legal basis to implement the National Single Window and the ASEAN Single Window.

The limitations in the implementation of the National Single Window are discussed at the meeting. Photo: Q.H

According to a representative of the Customs IT and Statistics Department, despite achievements, the National Single Window has not been fully effective, especially in carrying out the target of automated cross-border trade.

The National Single Window mechanism has only met the handling of single administrative procedures of state management agencies; has neither created connection, interconnection and consistency in the implementation of administrative procedures associated with the supply chain of import and export goods, goods in transit, and the activities of people and means of transport on entry and exit and in transit; nor effectively supported the management, direction and administration of the Government and state management agencies.

Information and data have been scattered and only used for the implementation of single administrative procedures; data and documents declared by an enterprises have not been inherited and applied to carry out other administrative procedures related to the enterprise.

In addition, the specialized processing systems of ministries and agencies are still scattered at different levels, making it difficult to connect, exchange and share information.

“In terms of operation, the system will create an integrated information technology application platform, in line with development trends of countries around the world. Simultaneously, the system will digitize all data, build a standardized centralized database related to import and export activities; provide many utilities for people, businesses, as well as management agencies," the representative of the Customs IT and Statistics Department said.

At the meeting, representatives of departments and agencies gave their opinions on the necessity of building the system, and made requirements for the next connection; assessed current status and connection plans; and proposed methods to connect the system with the Smart Customs model and benefits and roles of ministries and sectors and the roadmap of the system implementation.

Speaking at the conclusion of the meeting, Deputy Director General of the General Department of Customs Mai Xuan Thanh said first of all, on project development, it is necessary to establish an interdisciplinary and inter-ministerial project team.

“Regarding the content of the project, it is necessary to clarify the operating model, operating mechanism, benefits to businesses and society, improve management efficiency; clearly define the objectives of the project and the national single window system's objectives and set standardized connection requirements. At the same time, it is necessary to survey and evaluate the system implemented by ministries and agencies; assign tasks and responsibilities of ministries and agencies in the implementation of the project," said Deputy Director General Mai Xuan Thanh.