An Customs officer receives import and export dossiers of enterprises. Photo: Thu Hoa

Leading sector in trade

The Covid-19 pandemic has seriously affected the economy. The business production and import and export operations of FDI enterprises have been disrupted while the transportation of goods has faced difficulties. However, the trade of FDI enterprises has seen positive growth.

According to the Manager of Investment and Processing Customs Branch under HCM City Customs Department Nguyen Xuan Binh, although the imports and exports of FDI enterprises has fallen compared with the previous year, it has still maintained steady growth even amid the peak period of the Covid-19 pandemic in November.

In November, the branch processed over 62,600 import and export declarations with a total trade of about US$1.8 billion. As of November 15, it collected VND20,000 billion, meeting over 94.8% of the target.

The total import turnover of FDI enterprises across the seaport of HCM City between January and October hit US$41,640 million, the turnover of the economic sector with foreign investment reached US$20,391.8 million while the import turnover of state economic sector deceased 5.9% to US$884.5 million, and non-state economic sector increased 1% to US$20,363.7 million. The export turnover of FDI enterprises in this period achieved nearly US$21.5 billion out of a total of over US$32.4 billion of the whole city.

After ending social distancing, to overcome the delay in production, the businesses expect to implement non-stop production, including Saturdays, Sundays and holiday. The municipal customs department continues to provide solutions to facilitate imports and exports and recovery the economy.

Diverse support forms for businesses

The Investment and Processing Customs Branch’s manager Nguyen Xuan Binh said in early November, the branch provided procedures related to dossier and registration for tax-exemption for a corporation that is preparing a large-scale power plant project in HCM City.

Amid the development of the Covid-19 pandemic, the branch had changed the form of business support. Instead of holding conferences with businesses as before, the branch’s working teams will arrange the support, avoiding delays in customs clearance.

The branch has supported and removed difficulties for businesses in customs processes, and promoted IT applications such as Zalo, Viber and email. Many groups have been set up to exchange information and arrange officers to perform tasks. It has also developed its website to update information and support enterprises. Therefore, businesses highly appreciated the cooperation and support of Customs amid the public health crisis.