Vietnam Leads ASEAN’s Efforts to Develop Single Customs Window with Support from USTDA
Following the 17th Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Regional Forum, the U.S. Trade and Development Agency demonstrated its commitment to Vietnam, ASEAN’s 2010 host, by funding a single window customs pilot project, which will reduce customs clearance processing time and expand Vietnam’s trade and transit market.
This national single window project will streamline cargo transfer and improve trade efficiency by modernizing Vietnam’s information and communications technology platform, which may form the basis for ASEAN’s regional effort to develop a single window trading and customs processing platform by 2012 to improve commerce throughout the region and with key trading partners.
“This pilot project will help to increase revenue, enforce trade compliance regulations and reduce the cost of cargo movement into Vietnam, an increasingly important partner for the United States in Southeast Asia,” U.S. Ambassador Michael W. Michalak remarked when he signed the grant on September 15, 2010 in Hanoi. “The launching of today’s partnership demonstrates once again, the United States’ commitment to working with Vietnam to promote economic growth and more broadly, the regional integration of ASEAN.”
USTDA’s US$718,600 grant will fund a feasibility study and pilot project that will identify the system requirements, evaluate standardized customs documents and data, recommend institutional changes and data models, and outline the implementation plan for project deployment. This work performed under USTDA’s funding will complement USAID’s efforts to promote ASEAN single window integration.
Vietnamese
