"One-stop mechanism" can help reduce 4 days of customs clearance time

Customs clearance time for goods can be reduced by up to 4 days out of the current total of 21 days if the national single window mechanism is well applied.

Illustration photo: VNA

Affirmation at "Ceremony to officially announce the implementation of the national single window mechanism at international seaports"At a meeting held on November 12, Mr. Do Hoang Anh Tuan, Deputy Minister of Finance, said that the new import-export mechanism is essentially a shared database between relevant agencies and units and is implemented electronically.

According to Mr. Tuan, this also means that instead of businesses having to prepare 5 or 6 sets of documents and "knock on the door" of each ministry and industry to prepare documents such as quarantine permits, quality standards, etc., in the near future, only one set of documents will be needed.

Enterprises only need to submit information to the national single window portal system and also receive processing results from this single point.

"Customs clearance time will be reduced, if done well, it can be reduced by 3.5-4 days out of a total of 21 days," said the leader of the Ministry of Finance.

Explaining further, Mr. Tran Quoc Dinh, Deputy Head of the Customs Modernization Reform Department, said that with the electronic implementation method, businesses can even "sit at home" and submit documents via the portal. The software to make declarations is also free to use on the portal, so businesses will not have to spend much on initial investment.

Speaking at the ceremony, Deputy Prime Minister Vu Van Ninh pointed out that Vietnam is currently at the "average" level in ASEAN and administrative procedures. Therefore, along with the application of the national single window mechanism and recent reforms, the Deputy Prime Minister said that the authorities need to strive to reach the "Fair" level and further, to be in the leading group in the region.

With the new mechanism in import and export, Deputy Prime Minister Vu Van Ninh requested to do well the import and export work at international seaports in the immediate future and all international border gates in the future. According to him, this workload is a lot and one of the important things is that ministries and branches must coordinate well with each other.

The Deputy Prime Minister also affirmed that the above coordination first of all needs regulations to have a basis for strict implementation, assign responsibilities as well as draw lessons for self-improvement.

Also at the ceremony held today, the Ministry of Finance, the General Department of Customs and the Ministry of Transport were the first units to connect the database.

According to the plan, by the end of November, the Ministry of Industry and Trade will officially connect administrative procedures in the shared data network. By June 2015, a number of other agencies will join the connection, including the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, the Ministry of Health, and the Ministry of National Defense. From 2016, the national single window mechanism for import and export will be expanded to connect with the remaining ministries and sectors.

According to Vietnam+