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Following the direction of the Government and the Prime Minister, procedures related to import and export activities have been continuously reformed over the past time, create favorable conditions for businesses and improve national competitiveness.

The results of a new survey published by the Vietnam Confederation of Trade and Industry (VCCI) show that the majority of businesses are satisfied with the National Single Window and reforms in specialized inspection, creating favorable conditions. for import and export goods. Statistics on the results of import and export of goods in fact also show that.

Positive signs from import and export of goods

Since the beginning of the year, the consequences of the Covid-19 epidemic on the global economy have been extremely heavy. In addition, economic and military conflicts between countries around the world have aggravated difficulties for the world economy. Rising fuel and material prices, broken supply chains and commodity consumption globally, pushed commodity prices and inflation soaring, production and business stalled, recovery was very weak in Vietnam and all over the world. That has greatly affected the production and business situation of Vietnamese enterprises.

The customs sector has increased the application of information technology and digitization in the process of managing and implementing the customs sector.

Data from the General Statistics Office shows that Vietnam's total import-export turnover in 2021 will reach 668.5 billion USD, up 22.6% compared to 2020. According to data from the General Department of Customs In October, 2022, the total import-export value of Vietnam was estimated at 58.27 billion USD, an increase of 70 million USD compared to the previous month. In which, the total export value is estimated at 30.27 billion USD, up 1.5% (equivalent to 452 million USD) and the total import value is estimated at 28 billion USD, down 1.3% (corresponding to the decrease of USD 452 million). 382 million USD). The total import-export value of the whole country in the past 10 months was estimated at USD 616.24 billion, up 14.1%, corresponding to an increase of USD 75.94 billion in absolute terms over the same period in 2021. In which, total export value was estimated at USD 312.82 billion, up 15.9% (equivalent to USD 42.98 billion) and total import value was estimated at USD 303.42 billion, up 12.2% (equivalent to USD 303.42 billion) increased by 32.95 billion USD). Thus, in October, the country had a trade surplus of 2.27 billion USD. In general, from the beginning of the year to the end of October 2022, the country's trade surplus was estimated at US$9.4 billion.

"This result reflects the great efforts of the General Department of Customs, the Ministry of Finance and other ministries and branches in reforming administrative procedures and facilitating import and export activities of enterprises" Vice Chairman of VCCI Hoang Quang Phong commented.

Most businesses are satisfied with customs procedures

Mr. Hoang Quang Phong's comments were made on the basis of a survey on the satisfaction of enterprises about the implementation of administrative procedures through the National Single Window and specialized management and inspection procedures. This survey activity started in 2019. Up to now, each year, VCCI has coordinated with the General Department of Customs plus support from the US Agency for International Development through the trade facilitation project to survey and report publication.

The survey results of more than 3,000 import-export businesses in 2022 have just been announced by VCCI, showing that, most businesses said, the National Single Window is relatively well operated; the process of performing online procedures on the portal is more convenient; the reception and settlement of administrative procedures through the gate has helped reduce time and costs for businesses. Businesses also recorded similar positive changes in the field of specialized management and inspection.

Deputy Director, Deputy Head of Department in charge of Customs Reform and Modernization Department (General Department of Customs) Luong Khanh Thiet said: "As of October 17, 2022, the National Single Window has 250/261 administrative procedures of 13 ministries and branches connected, with nearly 5 million dossiers of more than 55,000 enterprises.Besides the implementation of the National Single Window, the ASEAN Single Window, over the past time, reforms have been carried out, simplifying specialized inspection procedures for import and export goods of special interest to the Government, drastically directed to create favorable conditions for businesses, reduce customs clearance time, and improve the Index. cross-border trade transactions, improve national competitiveness".

There's still a lot of work to do

However, through the opinions of businesses, businesses still want relevant ministries, branches and agencies to continue paying attention to improving the effectiveness of the National Single Window, and at the same time speeding up procedural reform specialized management and inspection to facilitate more trade.

Regarding specialized inspection, the business community assessed that the order and procedures for inspection still went through many steps beyond necessary and inconsistent; enterprises have to travel many times, contact with many focal points of state agencies; a number of specialized inspection procedures, specialized management are still carried out manually; Some procedures have moved to electronic form but are not yet comprehensive, some steps still require paper documents. Enterprises also said that the duplication of specialized inspection among ministries and branches has not been uniformly handled by amending and promulgating legal documents on assignment of functions and tasks; many groups of goods are also under the management of many ministries. In particular, enterprises reflect that ministries and branches have not yet applied mutual recognition and mutual recognition; Traceability has not been applied in specialized inspection.

The enterprises suggested the ministries and branches continue to reduce and simplify the stages in the specialized inspection process, from submitting dossiers, examining dossiers, taking samples and announcing results; fully and more widely apply the principles of risk management to better facilitate businesses with a good history of compliance; minimize the overlap between the regulations on specialized inspection.

Along with that, the business community wishes to implement the National Single Window more quickly and thoroughly to minimize the required paperwork, maximize the shift to digitization, and avoid the situation that businesses have to declare information on the same day. information on the National Single Window, while having to do the procedures directly at the state management agency. State agencies also need to have a mechanism to connect and share information to avoid duplicate requests with businesses.

In order to further facilitate businesses and reduce the time for customs clearance of import and export goods, Deputy General Director of the General Department of Customs Hoang Viet Cuong affirmed that the customs authority will make efforts to coordinate with ministries and sectors. , accompanying businesses to implement the National Single Window, the ASEAN Single Window on schedule; reforming specialized inspection procedures to reduce the time for customs clearance of import and export goods, creating favorable conditions for businesses, contributing to improving national competitiveness.