Scene of the working session. Photo: H.Nu

At the meeting, Deputy Director General Au Anh Tuan thanked the Vietnam Logistics Business Association for actively participating in contributing ideas to perfecting the policy mechanism, and raising difficulties and operation of logistics enterprises in the reality for the Customs authority to understand them more specifically.

Deputy Director General Au Anh Tuan said that the Customs is in the process of completing normative documents, legal policy systems, and information technology systems. Therefore, the GDVC hopes that the Vietnam Logistics Business Association will be a bridge to provide regulations and legal policies to the business community and to improve the compliance of the business community in general and Logistics businesses in particular, aiming to enhance compliance with the law and ensure the management efficiency of the Customs.

Mr. Do Trong Khoa, Chairman of the Vietnam Logistics Business Association, also said that most of the association's member enterprises are customs brokers. The Association thanked the GDVC’s representative for cooperation between the two sides, especially the support for logistics businesses’ development. The cooperation between the Customs and the Vietnam Logistics Business Association has been the most successful and practical cooperation model.

The representative of the Vietnam Logistics Business Association proposed that the GDVC continue to support and facilitate the association to update guidance documents related to the Customs processes to disseminate to the business community for effective implementation. At the same time, the Association also asked the GDVC to support the development of the customs broker system.

The Association said that the current process of taking the exam for a customs declaration certificate is too difficult for customs broker staff. According to statistics, in the past, the passing rate of all three subjects was only 5-7% and had to be employees who had been trained and graduated from specialized schools in economics. In addition, most staff had to retake the exam.

The Association recommended that the GDVC should work and direct Vietnam Customs School to improve the rate of customs broker staff passing the exam.

Recognizing the proposal of the Vietnam Logistics Business Association, Deputy Director General Au Anh Tuan said that the Customs has regularly implemented the law dissemination on mass media. Notably, guidance documents related to customs processes are regularly updated in the Customs Magazine, the Customs Information Portal and the websites of provincial and municipal customs departments.

The issuance of document to recognize Customs broker in Vietnam is simple. However, in order to be recognized and granted a code, customs broker staff must meet requirements. Currently, the GDVC has issued recognition to about 1,6000 customs brokers, and granted more than 3,000 codes, Deputy Director General Au Anh Tuan said.

Regarding the low rate of passing the customs declaration certificate exam, the GDVC requests the Vietnam Customs School to refer to the exam model in a number of countries and review the exam process and questions to ensure effectiveness. However, the staff who granted the certificate is required to have a certain understanding of customs, foreign trade and commercial policies and regulations.

Deputy Director General Au Anh Tuan said that e-commerce is developing strongly, therefore, in the coming time, the Customs will adjust a number of policies to ensure facilitation, fairness and transparency among the parties involved in the trade activities.

Therefore, the GDVC hopes that the Vietnam Logistics Business Association will actively support enterprises to fully grasp the orientations and regulations to develop the trade economy in accordance with regulations as well as help production and business activities of enterprises take place fairly, harmoniously and transparently.