On the afternoon of September 29, Hanoi Customs Department held an opening ceremony to launch the National Single Window and Automated System for Customs Supervision at Noi Bai international airport. Noi Bai is one of the two international airports with the largest number of entry and exit passengers in Vietnam. Therefore, the implementation of these two systems at this airport is significant to help reduce time and costs for enterprises, ensure state management as well as meet the customs reform and modernization requirements.

Imported goods are inspected by scanners at Noi Bai cargo terminal warehouses.
Photo: TKTS 

Management method reformed

The Customs sector in general and the Hanoi Customs Department in particular have applied information technology (IT) in the entire customs procedures for import-export goods by sea, road and railway. However, the IT application for customs procedures for goods by air has not been deployed comprehensively and synchronously. Therefore, the connection and exchange of information between the Customs authorities and port operators and airlines is still restricted, leading to difficulties in supervision and management of import-export goods, leading to a time-consuming process and high storage costs. Moreover, the management method based on documentary inspection and manual supervision is unable to meet the requirements of state management on customs in the context of an increasing workload.

Accordingly, Hanoi Customs Department actively reviewed and made a proposal and was assigned as the first unit of the Customs sector to pilot the National Single Window System and the Automated System for Customs supervision at Noi Bai international airport by the Ministry of Finance and General Department of Customs with the goal of setting up a unified and complete IT system which automatically manages and monitors all goods from entry to exit from warehouses quickly and accurately and provides online public services anytime, anywhere and creating favorable conditions for enterprises in import and export activities.

Hanoi Customs Department has mobilized its resources, drastically and urgently carried out and established a unit to assign and urge units to work together to implement tasks such as: working with Customs Information Technology and Statistics Department and Customs Control and Supervision Department to review and complete operational processes, function requirements and management processes; working with Noi Bai International Airport on automatic connections with the national singlewindow portal and the airport operation and management system.

At the same time, Hanoi Customs Department together with warehouse operators and Vietnam Airlines have surveyed the current situation and studied international standards of connectivity in the aviation field and deployed automatic connection and information exchange through the system; studied and applied the goods management number as recommended by the World Customs Organization. This management number is uniformly used to exchange information, manage goods before goods arrival to exit from customs control area; and uses QR codes to improve the automation of the system.

Based on the achievements after more than two years of pilot implementation, the General Department of Customs has recently announced the official launching of the National Single Window and the Automated System for Customs Supervision at Noi Bai international airport from August 14, 2020, as a basis for the launching at all international airports nationwide.

Reform and management goals reached

According to the Hanoi Customs Department, the implementation of the systems has brought great benefits in customs management, ensured customs reform and modernization and IT application in customs procedures; improved the effectiveness and efficiency of the customs inspection and management activities. The time for customs inspection, supervision and clearance of goods from 3 - 6 hours is reduced to an average of less than 10 minutes for each shipment.

Moreover, the implementation of the two above systems has also created a premise to apply risk management in the process of conducting inspection and supervision, focusing on key flights and preventing acts of smuggling, trade fraud, illegal transportation of goods through international airports, in the context of huge flows of goods at average of 200 international flights per day and above 5,300 shipments in customs clearance at Noi Bai international airport.

The utilities on the systems help customs officers look up and check bills of lading information on the customs declaration and presented by the customs declarant with bill of lading information declared by airlines or issuers in order to promptly combat, detect, and prevent (before, during and after customs clearance) acts of correcting bill of lading information, providing fake bills of lading to commit acts of trade fraud and smuggling via air.

As for warehouse operators and airlines, the implementation of the two above systems has ensured themto connect and exchange information with the Customs authorities electronically instead of using paper documents, saving time, costs, resources and improving competitiveness and operational efficiency. The national single window system and the automated system for customs supervision ensure access to international standards on the connection between the customs authorities with enterprises in the aviation industry.

Especially for organizations and individuals participating in import-export activities, the automated system for customs supervision has created maximum convenience for enterprises in import-export activities, helpedthem save time and travel costs, storage costs and improve economic efficiency.

After more than two years of implementation (since October 2017), Hanoi Customs Department has completed a pilot implementation phase. So far, the system has met the operational goals and requirements set out. 100% of airlines have sent information to the National Single Window portal. The automated system for customs supervision has connected all Noi Bai cargo terminal warehouses. The system's automatic processing rate is stable at over 99.5%. Customs clearance time for each shipment has been reduced from 3-6 hours to an average of less than 10 minutes. On average, over 5,300 shipments are managed and supervised through the system per day.