The conference to review the one-year operation of the Scientific Council of the General Department of Customs, term VIII (2021-2023).

Scientific research in a new context

A new point in science research of the Customs sector for the 2021-2022 period is the issuance of the Action Plan of the Scientific Council in Decision 02/QD-KHTCHQ dated December 2, 2021, for two phases: Phase 1 from December 2021 to the end of the second quarter of 2022, Phase 2 from the third quarter of 2022 to the fourth quarter of 2023, with specific contents, associated with the responsibilities of the members of the Scientific Council in the advising leaders of the General Department to improve the efficiency of scientific research of the Customs sector.

The Covid-19 pandemic has forced sectors and businesses to change their business methods, and the Customs sector must also change their management methods and apply advanced technology to carry out political tasks on the inspection and supervision of imports and exports at seaports and land borders. In recent years, many research projects have been carried out, bringing science research into the task of customs management, meeting the trend of increasing cargo traffic through seaports and land border gates. A number of scientific research projects are being implemented to solve urgent issues that need coordination between ministries and sectors, and may be applied immediately after acceptance.

Many research projects have been launched in the context that the entire Customs sector is mobilizing all resources towards a smart Customs model, standardizing business processes and redesigning the IT system towards a standard customs model as recommended by the World Customs Organization. This is also a task within the framework of building an e-Government towards a digital government of the customs sector.

These achievements of the customs sectors were thanked to that the Standing Office of the Scientific Council (Customs Research Institute) develops a plan to implement science research tasks at the Ministry of Finance level, at the General Department of Customs level and the Research Institute level to flexibly respond to the pandemic situation, promptly catch the research progress, remove difficulties and obstacles to help the science agency and other units in charge to complete the tasks on schedule and ensuring quality. Many meetings were conducted online during the pandemic, to ensure the implementation progress of the science research work.

Some difficulties and solutions to improve quality

At the Conference to review the one-year operation of the Scientific Council of the General Department of Customs, term VIII (2021-2023) held on May 18, 2022, the Standing members of the Scientific Council pointed out difficulties and obstacles in the scientific research work of the General Department of Customs, specifically:

Firstly, the scientific research force still mainly focuses on some leaders of officers in charge of policy making at the General Department. Officers at local customs units have few opportunities to access research, while their work faces many problems and difficulties that need to be solved by scientific arguments.

Secondly, the fund for science research is still limited and has not met the entire research target set out in the year.

Thirdly, there has not been many scientific research seminars to connect experts and scientists inside and outside the sector with Customs officers for basic research topics.

Fourthly, due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, and regulations on social distancing, the inspection of the progress at research units as well as solutions to solve difficulties for units in charge of the science research are still limited, affecting the research progress and quality.

Fifthly, the level of application of the research topics has not been assessed after acceptance, so the results of the research projects have not been maximized. Besides, many new topics are only of theoretical nature, while the practical application is still very limited.

In order to improve the quality of research work, it is necessary to increase focus on areas such as: improving institutions to meet the requirements of customs modernization, trade facilitation, and international commitments, improving state management capacity on customs, improving the organizational structure and human resources of the Customs sector, researching new issues in modern customs with the digital Customs model, towards Smart Customs model, Green Customs, smart border management, etc.

Along with that, the Standing Scientific Council of the General Department of Customs must be the focal point to connect the scientific research work between the General Department of Customs and units inside and outside the sector. It is necessary to strengthen the advisory and appraisal role of the expert groups of the Scientific Council from determining research tasks, consulting on the selection of science research tasks, developing detailed outlines to thematic reports to improve the quality of research products and meet the requirements of the Scientific Council.

Furthermore, it is necessary to strengthen the information, exchange and provision of scientific research information in the field of customs with domestic and international organizations; develop a coordination regulation with units inside and outside the Customs sector to deploy projects that need the coordination of two or more units in order to make the best use of scientific research human resources in the Customs sector;

To work with specialized Research Institutes to accept, evaluate the quality of research projects and jointly bring the research results into life. At the same time, it is necessary to have assessment criteria for the application results of the projects to improve the quality and effectiveness of the application, and increase the responsibility of the research officers.

It is necessary to promote the publication of accepted projects with urgent and practical topics on the Customs website to serve as a reference source for customs officers and contribute to fostering the theoretical and practical basis, improve qualifications for Customs officers.