Director General Nguyen Van Can make a speech at the working session. Photo: T.Bình

Deputy Director General Mai Xuan Thanh and the heads of a number of professional units under the General Department of Vietnam Customs also attended the working session.

Upholding the responsibility of the leader

Speaking at the meeting, Director General Nguyen Van Can emphasized the importance and necessity of implementing the Digital Customs System and Smart Customs model because this is a trend that has been and is being implemented by customs authorities in developed countries. At the same time, it is consistent with the policy of digital transformation in Vietnam as well as the process of administrative procedure reform and modernization of Vietnam Customs.

The urgent completion and putting into operation of the Digital Customs System and Smart Customs model will make an important contribution to trade facilitation and improve the efficiency of State management of Customs.

On January 26, 2021, the Ministry of Finance issued Decision 97/QD-BTC approving the policy of "Outsourcing information technology services to perform Digital Customs". This plays a very important role in building a new information technology system to serve the goal of building modern Vietnam Customs on a par with developed countries in the world.

After the Ministry of Finance issued Decision 97, the leaders of the General Department of Vietnam Customs directed relevant units to implement the contents approved by the Ministry.

With the efforts and determination of the units and customs officers, the General Department of Vietnam Customs is ensuring the implementation of related works in line with the roadmap.

At the working session, Director General Nguyen Van Can said that in order to successfully implement the Digital Customs System and Smart Customs model, one of the important issues was the awareness, understanding and responsibility of heads of units, especially managers of customs branches.

The Director General assigned the departments and functional departments of the General Department of Vietnam Customs to urgently transfer the latest documents to Hai Phong Customs to focus on research so that the Department could take the initiative and be ready to be one of the first units of the sector piloting the Digital Customs System and Smart Customs model.

At the meeting, the General Director suggested that leaders of branches, professional divisions of Hai Phong Customs Department and divisions of the General Department of Vietnam Customs have an in-depth discussion and frank exchange in order to come up with practical opinions, contributing to choosing the most optimal solutions to successfully implement the Digital Customs System and Smart Customs model.

Comprehensive research

Reporting to the Director General and the delegation, the Director of Hai Phong Customs Department Nguyen Duy Ngoc said that thoroughly grasping the direction of the leaders of the General Department of Vietnam Customs, the unit had thoroughly grasped the guidelines and orientations of the Ministry of Finance, General Department of Vietnam Customs on building a Digital Customs System and Smart Customs model for all customs officers and employees. At the same time, actively researched and contributed ideas to specialized agencies of the General Department of Vietnam Customs.

“Besides 12 professional problems assigned to lead, Hai Phong Customs Department actively researched all 115 professional problems in nine fields in the documents of the General Department of Vietnam Customs. On the basis of research, Hai Phong Customs Department had given feedback and suggestions with more than 100 pages of documents,” Director Nguyen Duy Ngoc said.

Regarding the task assigned by the General Director to be one of the first units in the sector to carry out the pilot, leaders of Hai Phong Customs Department expressed their determination to concentrate resources and be ready to successfully deploy the Digital Customs System and Smart Customs model following the plan of the General Department of Vietnam Customs.