Bolstering Customs - Business Ties

 

In his opening speech, Vu Ngoc Anh, Deputy General Director of the General Department of Vietnam Customs (GDC), said, while carrying out core tasks and objectives, GDC has paid much attention to customs - business partnership development. This is also an important content of national customs agency recommended by the World Customs Organisation (WCO) to focus on. To improve the effectiveness of business - customs partnership, GDC has been, and will be, carrying out specific action plans to facilitate the business community, including Prioritised Business Programme; Customs Agent Development Programme; and Business Compliance Programme.

 

Mr Phan Vinh Quang, USAID representative in Vietnam, said, after years of tracking activities of the Vietnamese customs sector, he personally saw that operations of the customs sector have been increasingly improved by friendliness in communication and behaviour and effectiveness in handling customs procedures. However, to catch up with development trends and facilitate the business community, the customs authorities still need to further enhance relations with the business community to create “professionalism - transparency - effectiveness” as stated in the Declaration of Customs Sector to Customer Service.

 

On behalf of the Organising Committee, Mr Kim Long Bien, Deputy Director of Customs Reform and Modernisation Committee under the GDC, introduced GDC plans and instructions to customs - business partnership development. He said business - customs partnership is an inevitable development trend of development of a modern customs agency. This stems from the fact that this relationship brings benefits to both customs authorities and business community. WCO defines the customs - business partnership is one of 10 pillars that form a modern customs agency in the 21st century. In ASEAN region, customs - business partnership is defined as the seventh out of 15 development goals of customs strategy in the 2011-2015 period to enhance the competitiveness and economic integration of ASEAN.