Speaking at a seminar held in Ho Chi Minh on December 20, Tran Ngoc Liem, deputy director of the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) HCM City, said that overlapping inspection procedures were causing problems for enterprises. 

The General Department of Vietnam Customs said that procedures accounted for up to 50% of customs clearance time. 

Many shipments have been inspected, but still have not been cleared, it said. Even after three months, State agencies are still conducting inspection checks.

Phan Duc Hieu, deputy head of the Central Institute for Economic Management (CIEM), said the proportion of imports and exports subject to specialised inspections at customs clearance was up to 30-35% and would be reduced to 15% under a Government resolution.

The current rate of imported and exported goods subject to veterinary inspections is 14.3%; quality control, 25.3%; food safety inspection, 19.1%; and export licences, 41.2%.

As many as 100,000 export items are currently subject to specialised inspections, he said.

Resolution 19 of the Government identified the need for reform of sectoral management and control, and assigned a number of missions to several ministries. 

So far, 60 documents have been reviewed, and 56 of them have been amended and supplemented, with four not amended or supplemented.

“As for the number of goods subject to specialised inspections, up to 58% go through two to three test procedures, increasing costs for businesses,” Hieu said.

Every year, enterprises have to pay VND14.3 trillion for specialised inspections, according to the General Department of Vietnam Customs.

Most businesses said that many ministries have a monopoly in carrying out conformity assessment inspections.

The inspections are still done manually and communication among information technology agencies is limited, without risk management procedures. 

Even though the number of inspections is high, the detection rate is only 0.1%. 

The seminar was organised by VCCI in HCM City in collaboration with CIEM. 

The seminar listened to opinions on the problems of exporters and reviewed specialised inspection procedures of export and import activities.