This is an important direction by Deputy Prime Minister Pham Binh Minh,Chairman of the National Steering Committee for ASEAN Single Window (ASW), National Single Window (NSW) and trade facilitation (Committee 1899).

Deputy Prime Minister Pham Binh Minh presides over the 7thsession of
the Committee 1899. Photo: T. Binh.

Arduous task

The Government Office has just announced the conclusion of Deputy Prime Minister Pham Binh Minh at the 7th Session of the Committee 1899 (which tookplace on September 22, 2020).

The conclusion states that the task of implementing NSW, ASW, and trade facilitation activities from now to the end of 2020 is arduous.

To fulfill the plan,the Deputy Prime Minister asked the Ministry of Finance(MoF) to urge ministries and sectors to perform their tasks according to Decision No. 1254/QD-TTg dated September 26 and Decision No.1258/QD-TTg on the Action plan to promote NSW, ASW, and reform of specialized inspection for import, export goods and trade facilitation in2018-2020.

The Deputy Prime Minister also assigned the MoF to lead and coordinate with ministries and sectors in accelerating the development and deployment of the Master Plan on building and developing information technology systems for the implementation of NSW, ASW; build a Government Decree on connection and sharing information between government agencies and concerned partiesvia NSW in the fields of import, export and transit of goods.

At the same time, the MoF shall develop and submit to the Prime Minister for approval the scheme on reforming the model of food quality and food safety inspections for imported goods, and deploy the scheme; summarize and develop a budget in 2021 for the implementation of NSW, ASW and trade facilitation.

The Deputy Prime Minister assigned the Ministry of Public Security to soon connect the Ministry’s specialized system to the NSW to receive information on exit, entry and transit aircraft to deploy an Aviation NSW according to Government Decree No. 85/2019/ND-CP dated November 14, 2019 on the implementation of administrative procedures according to the NSW, ASW and specialized inspection for exported and imported goods.

The Deputy Prime Minister requested ministries and sectors to strengthen human resources and accelerate the review and unification of operational processes and information criteria; design analysis; build systems; implement testing, training and coaching; pilot and officially deploy 61 administrative procedures that need to be implemented in 2020.

Great efforts to reduce costs for the business community

In addition, the Deputy Prime Minister directed ministries and sectors to promote the electronicization of the implementation of administrative procedures according to public services at level 4, integrate the application submission, e-payment to returning aresult; develop a mechanism and speed up the electronic data sharingto optimize the process via the NSW and implement the administrative procedures on the NSW.

Ministries and sectors should focus on administrative reform toward reducing costs for businesses in implementing procedures, including giving priority in strengthening information transparency, unifying forms, reducing and simplifying the procedures, as well as dossiers.

The ministries and sectors should arrange officers to closely coordinate with the General Department of Vietnam Customs in deploying,connecting, and electronically processing procedures, promptly instruct and resolve problems for concerned parties.

The Deputy Prime Minister asked ministries and sectors to closely coordinate with business associations to regularly and effectively conduct business dialogues in the process of developing and perfecting mechanisms, policies and legal documents as well as import and export procedures. Promptly solve problems of businesses in implementing administrative procedures and quickly publicize the results of solving these problems.

Ministries and sectors should send e-legal documents related to the management of import-export, trade, investment and specialized inspection to the management agency of Vietnam Trade Information Portal of the General Department of Vietnam Customs to update contents onthe portal.

According to the General Department of Vietnam Customs - the Standing Office of the Committee1899, as of September 30, 2020, 200 administrative procedures of 13 ministries and sectors were officially connected to the NSW, and more than 3.35 million applications of more than 41,700 businesses were processed.

Regarding the ASW, continue to exchange e-C/O form D with nine ASEAN member states, including Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Brunei, Cambodia, Myanmar, Laos and the Philippines via the ASW.

As of September 30, the total C/O received by Vietnam from ASEAN member states was 200,641, the total number of C/O sent to other member states by Vietnam was 276,134.

The MoFis preparing technical conditions to exchange information on ASEAN customs declarations and phytosanitary certificates. According to ASEAN's plan, these two documents are expected to be connected and exchanged in 2020.