A handover ceremony of handheld substance detection devices was held by the General Department of Vietnam Customs and the UK Border Force in Ha Noi on May 7.

 
Representatives of the two sides at the handover ceremony. Photo: H.N 

The ceremony was attended by Deputy Director General of Vietnam Customs Mai Xuan Thanh and leaders of departments, Deputy Ambassador of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland to Vietnam Marcus Winsley, Head of the United Kingdom Border Force to Vietnam Jenny Steveson, and experts and officials of the British embassy in Ha Noi.

Upon the implementation of the Memorandum of Understanding signed by Vietnam’s Ministry of Finance and the UK’s Ministry of Home Affairs on October 2, 2019, the two sides have actively promoted customs cooperation, especially in training and strengthening capacity building and technical assistance.

Representatives of the two sides at the handover ceremony. Photo: H.N 

The assistance and cooperation activities of the UK Border Force for Vietnam Customs have been implemented effectively and practically throughout past years, bringing many benefits to Vietnam’s customs modernization efforts.

At the ceremony, Deputy Director General Mai Xuan Thanh said that Vietnam Customs highly appreciated the great efforts of the UK Border Force in cooperation with the General Department of Vietnam Customs, especially amid the complicated development of Covid-19.

Specifically, in training and developing human resources, the experts of the UK Border Force enthusiastically supported Vietnam Customs in conducting surveys on training needs for Vietnam’s Customs officials.

According to the report of Vietnam Customs School, the two sides have successfully organized four training courses on targeting identification, and four training courses on container screening image analysis for a total of 120 customs officials. The assistance has met the demand for high quality human resources in this period, improving the customs control.

GDVC’s Deputy Director General Mai Xuan Thanh spoke at the handover ceremony.
Photo: H.N 

In 2020, the UK Border Force awarded Vietnam’s Customs Marine Enforcement Fleet equipment and devices such as uniforms, protective shoes, binoculars and flashlights to ensure safety for customs officials in performing sea control. Vietnam Customs said that these devices are consistent and useful for customs inspection, supervision and control at border gates, seaports and airports, especially in detecting drug precursors, drugs and toxic substances.

Vietnam Customs will use aligent handheld substance detection devices awarded by UK Border Force to control goods at customs control areas of airports and seaports. It will also try to maintain the integrity of these devices and effectively use them in performance, at the same time conduct training courses for customs officials to use them in the most effective manner, Deputy Director General Mai Xuan Thanh said.

Vietnam Customs hopes to continue to receive assistance and close coordination of the UK Border Force.

Deputy Ambassador of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
to Vietnam Marcus Winsley. Photo: H.N 

In the future, the two sides will continue to work with the World Customs Organization to apply target identification software which is an application to collect and store sea and air cargo manifest data, and support customs officials in performing risk assessments for cargo manifests in a structured database. This work will assist in identifying high-risk shipments, facilitate trade and ensure supply chain security.

Deputy Ambassador of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland to Vietnam Marcus Winsley hopes that these devices will assist Vietnam Customs in performance. Especially, this event shows the close relations and great efforts in preventing trade fraud as well as facilitating trade between the two countries. In addition, the two countries should closely coordinate to prevent illicit transshipment of banned goods.

The UK Border Force commits to train customs officials who are in charge of using these devices in the most effective manner.

Deputy Director General Mai Xuan Thanh and Deputy Ambassador of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland to Vietnam Marcus Winsley both said that this event was one of the technical assistance activities deployed in 2021, contributing to strengthening cooperation between the UK Border Force and Vietnam Customs.