ICTF 2005 Helps Taxation and Customs Services during Integration

The 2005 ICT in Finance Conference and Expo (ICTF 2005) will take place in Hanoi from September 13-15, 2005. The International Data Group in (IDG ) co-operated with the Department of Financial Information Technology and Statistics (DFIS), the General Customs Department and the General Department of Taxation to organise a press conference recently to introduce the event.

The computerisation of the taxation and customs networks has drawn much attention from the Government, enterprises, the Vietnamese public and foreign investors. Therefore, ICTF 2005 will concentrate on the situation and development orientations of the taxation and customs services. Le Thanh Tam, managing director and chief representative of IDG Vietnam and IDG Indochina, said that the seminar and exhibition was themed 'ICT for taxation and customs during integration.

The Ministry of Finance issued Decision N⁰ 810/QD-BTC dated March 16, 2004 on reforming and modernising the customs service in the 2004-2006 period to meet the international standard on supply exchange. From this target, according to Vu Ngoc Anh, deputy director of the General Customs Department, the Ministry of Finance should find out optimal solutions for the computerisation of customs activities in particular and State management in general.

The Ministry of Finance has identified that challenges for the taxation and customs services are a huge volume of information the services will have to process apart from requirements for services they provide, and the promotion of their examination and supervision activities.  In addition, economic development has led to a reform of policies, organisation and management of the taxation and customs services. This requires a development of ICT for the two services.

ICTF 2005 will concentrate on the taxation and customs services via direct dialogues between lecturers from the General Customs Department and the General Department of Taxation and global ICT solution providers. On behalf of solution providers, Ho Thanh Tung, general manager of Oracle in Indochina , said that the computerisation of the taxation and customs services was an inevitable step in improving the rating of Vietnam's e-government. He said he hoped that Oracle and other providers would offer the most optimal solutions for the local customs and taxation services. 

Apart from concentrating on updated information about ICT application in the Vietnamese customs and taxation networks and challenges, the seminar will provide information about advanced models and solutions the local customs and taxation services are determined to develop. For the taxation system, the computerisation process aims to link information within the system and between the taxation and the treasury systems with a 'self-calculation, self-declaration and self-payment' network under a project initiated by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). As for the customs service, priorities will be given to the automation of the clearance and management of imported and exported goods, e-customs system, and information system for analysing and predicting revenues, meeting the standard of a modern customs organisation while implementing international commitments relating to the customs services.

Along with the seminar, there will be an exhibition of models and solutions for the customs and taxation services provided by Oracle, HP, FIS-FPT, IBM and Cisco.

Online transactions have seen a rapid development recently, and according to Truong Thi Hai Duong, manager of the General Department of Taxation, the system of the taxation service seems not to have caught up with such a development. In this context, the taxation service has developed a reform programme throughout 2010, in which a focus will be given to solutions for convenient services for enterprises and people with computerisation being the most important factor. To that end, the taxation service is seeking advice from experienced experts in and around the world.

• Nguyen Thoa