Reforms of checks on imported products will help improve the business climate while reducing time and costs, which will give significant room for growth, Minister and Chairman of the Government Office Mai Tien Dung has said.

Officials of Mong Cai Customs Department, Quang Ninh province check products.
(Photo: baoquangninh.com.vn)

Dung was speaking at the Government Office’s meeting on October 13 to discuss the draft project about reforms of quality and food safety control on imported products following the proposal of the Ministry of Finance.

The minister said there are barriers in procedures for importing products, which is time-consuming and pushing up costs, adding that the project aims to tackle these problems and create a favourable business environment.

The World Bank’s Doing Business 2020 report announced in October last year revealed Vietnam's ranking for the ease of trading across borders dropped four spots from 100th to 104th out of 190 economies while the ease of doing business fell one spot from 69th to 70th.

Detailed measures must be raised to improve ease of trading across borders as well as the business climate and national competitiveness, especially in the context that the Vietnamese Government set the targets of simplifying and cutting at least 20% of business regulations and slashing at least 20% of compliance costs, Dung said.

“If we do well with reforms on checks on imported products, it will create large room for growth," the minister said.

Deputy Minister of Finance Vu Thi Mai said reforms are being carried out but more drastic measures are needed to create breakthroughs.

Specialised checks on imports remain a burden on business, which increases time spent on customs clearance and undermines national competitiveness in trading across borders, she said.

Mai said the project aims to cut time and costs and create favourable conditions for business, protect the rights of businesses and consumers and improve efficiency in the management of imported products.

The project will focus on reforms which will make customs the focal point for quality and food safety control on imported products.

The finance ministry estimated that the reformed model will help reduce the number of declarations for quality and food safety control per year by about 54.4% and help save 2.4 million working days, equivalent to VND881 billion (US$38 million).

A representative from the Ministry of Industry and Trade said the project needs to clarify the roles of other ministries in carrying out specialised checks and post-clearance checks to have the most appropriate reforms.

Dung also asked ministries to hasten reforms to remove inconsistencies and overlaps which are burdening businesses.

During the past four years, 3,893 out of 6,191 business conditions were removed or simplified, together with removing 6,776 out of 9,926 product lines subjected to specialised checks for customs clearance. This helped save more than 18 million working days, equivalent to more than VND6.3 trillion.