Director General of the General Department of Vietnam Customs Nguyen Van Tho addresses at the Customs-Business Forum 2024. Photo: T.B

The business satisfaction will be criteria to assess effectiveness of Customs performance said by Director General Nguyen Van Tho of the General Department of Vietnam Customs at the Customs-Business Forum 2024 titled “10-year development of Customs-Business Partnership”, which is jointly held by the Customs Magazine and the Customs Reform and Modernization Board on September 10, on the occasion of the 79th anniversary of the establishment of Vietnam Customs (September 10, 1945 - September 10, 2024).

Sharing, supporting, accompanying the business community

At the Customs-Business Forum 2024, Director General Nguyen Van Tho said that on September 10, 1945, Interior Minister Vo Nguyen Giap, on behalf of the Provisional Government, signed Decree No. 27/SL establishing the “Tariff and Indirect Tax Services Department”, making the establishment of Vietnam Customs. Over the past 79 years, Vietnam Customs has grown and matured with the country’s revolutionary cause.

The development of the partnership between the Customs and businesses and related parties has been promoted by the Customs industry for many years. Notably, since 2014, the Customs authorities at all levels have identified the partnership development as key and regular task, and achieved many positive results.

Since the beginning of the year, the country's economy has continued to face great difficulties and challenges. The development of Customs-Business Partnership in the near future is necessary, aiming to share, support and accompany the business community to overcome difficulties for stability and development.

The Customs always promotes information provision and dissemination and support for people and businesses to fully and promptly grasp the Customs and tax.

The Customs focuses on consulting the business community on policies and legal regulations on customs and tax, and key customs reform and modernization programs before they are issued; provides solutions to remove obstacles and difficulties for businesses.

The Customs industry always pays attention to instructing and providing legal knowledge for businesses during the customs clearance process, and executes it uniformly throughout the industry, in many diverse and flexible methods.

Annually, the Customs industry has organized hundreds of Customs-Business dialogue conferences and has handled tens of thousands of problems of the business community.

The supervision of law enforcement has been implemented by the Customs sector in many methods. Accordingly, enterprises may directly interact and reflect the service quality of the customs as well as dissatisfaction in customs processes at customs branches.

The cooperation between the Customs and associations and businesses is promoted to consult and develop polices and laws; exchange and update information on new customs regulations, the law enforcement and implementation of initiatives on reforming working methods to execute customs reform and modernization programs.

Helping businesses develop more strongly and effectively

Currently, the Government promotes national digital transformation in an effective and practical manner, making positive contributions, creating breakthroughs in the country's socio-economic development; contributing to the completion of socio-economic development goals in 2024 and the period 2021 - 2025.

Director General Nguyen Van Tho said that Vietnam Customs implements the Customs Development Strategy to 2030 under the Prime Minister's approval decision, including the goal of “Improving the service quality for people and businesses in performing customs procedures and control. Facilitating legal cross-border trade, tourism and transport, creating a transparent and fair import-export environment, contributing to improving national competitiveness” and "developing cooperative and partnership relations between Customs and relevant parties to create a foundation and contribute to improving the effectiveness of State management of Customs”.

In the near future, the Customs industry will continue to focus on developing and perfecting legal documents on customs to streamline administrative procedures, facilitate customs procedures and gradually improve the capacity of customs inspection, supervision and control. The industry will also improve the operational efficiency of the Customs through digital tools, contributing to innovating working methods; enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of the Customs agency's operations and the quality of public service provision for people and businesses.

To achieve the goal of building and developing the Customs industry in the coming period, the industry will continue to effectively promote and innovate the development of the partnership between the Customs and businesses and related parties; consider enterprises as cooperative partners; take business satisfaction as one of the top important criteria to evaluate the operational efficiency of the Customs. The Customs industry will continue to diversify forms of information provision and dissemination to ensure that they align with characteristics of business types and specific management areas; strongly apply digital technology to information exchange.

Director General Nguyen Van Tho said that motivated by the great efforts of the whole Customs industry, the partnership between Customs and businesses and related parties will create an important driving force in supporting and promptly removing difficulties in production and business activities of the business community; helping businesses to develop more strongly and effectively in the near future.

The Director General Nguyen Van Tho believes that in order for the Customs-Business cooperation to be increasingly effective, in addition to the efforts of the Customs industry, the coordination of ministries, branches, business associations, the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) and the business community plays an important role.

The Customs industry hopes that businesses will continue to cooperate with the Customs to develop the Customs-Business partnership. The companionship, dynamism and creativity of the business community will be a key factor to create success and development.