Nghe An Customs develops in a modern direction

(Baonghean) - On September 10, 1945, following President Ho Chi Minh's Directive, Minister of the Interior Vo Nguyen Giap signed a decree to establish the "Department of Customs and Indirect Taxes", giving birth to the Vietnam Customs sector.

From that historical moment until now, the Customs sector has always strictly complied with the Party and State's guidelines and policies, effectively serving each different stage in the great revolutionary cause of the nation.

Provincial leaders pinned the Third Class Labor Medal on the traditional flag of Nghe An Customs Department. Photo: Hoang Vinh

Immediately after its establishment, Customs officers and staff demonstrated their steadfast and courageous will in the uncompromising struggle against French colonialism to protect the tariff sovereignty of the revolutionary state.

Since 1954, our entire country has focused on implementing two strategic tasks: building and protecting Socialism in the North and fighting to liberate the South and unify the country. In that context, with the new name of the Central Customs Department, Customs officers and employees have strived to complete the task of protecting the State's monopoly on foreign trade and foreign exchange, directly contributing to the development of foreign economic relations and international exchanges, while actively serving the task of supporting the Southern battlefield.

In 1975, after the historic Ho Chi Minh campaign, our country was completely liberated, the Customs sector also unified the name of the Central Customs Department under the Ministry of Foreign Trade. On August 20, 1984, the State Council approved the establishment of the General Department of Customs under the Council of Ministers.

During more than 30 years of national renovation, the Customs sector has made strong progress in all aspects of work such as improving customs procedures, reforming administrative procedures along with building working style and attitude of civil servants; enhancing the effectiveness of supervision and management, collecting import and export taxes, applying modern science and technology, effectively contributing to the development of trade, investment and tourism activities, promoting the country's regional and international integration process.

In 2001, the National Assembly of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam passed the Customs Law, which was amended and supplemented in 2005 and 2014. Based on the Customs Law, the organization and operation of the Customs sector have undergone fundamental changes. From being a general department, an agency under the Government, it has become an agency under the Ministry of Finance. Under the leadership of the Party Committee of the Ministry of Finance and the leadership of the Ministry of Finance, the General Department of Customs has developed and submitted to the Ministry for approval reform, development and modernization plans for 2004 - 2008, 2008 - 2010 and submitted to the Prime Minister for approval the development strategy of the Vietnam Customs sector for the period 2011 - 2015 and vision to 2020 according to Decision No. 448/QD-TTg.

In recent times, the Customs sector has continuously researched and deployed new professional techniques to simplify customs procedures and shorten customs clearance time, applying risk management methods in actual inspection of goods. The Customs sector has deployed the VNACCS/VCIS electronic customs clearance system and thanks to the promotion of modernization reform, the productivity, quality and efficiency of customs work have increased significantly; old working methods and styles have been changed, creating maximum convenience for quick customs clearance of goods, increasing the competitiveness of Vietnamese goods in the international market...

Through operational innovation, the budget collection work of the Customs sector has also achieved great achievements. From 2000 to now, the Customs sector has always exceeded the assigned plan, the revenue of the following year increased higher than the previous year, accounting for 25% to more than 30% of the total state budget revenue. As the agency managing import and export goods, synthesizing the import and export situation of the whole country, in recent years, the Customs sector has made many efforts in price management, controlling inflation, limiting trade deficit, contributing to market stabilization and developing the country's economy.

Checking import and export goods at Cua Lo Port. Photo: Hoang Vinh

With many efforts and struggles, the Customs sector has been awarded the Ho Chi Minh Medal, the Third Class Independence Medal and many other noble awards by the State.

As a unit under the General Department of Customs, Nghe An Provincial Customs Department is constantly growing in terms of organization, staff and professional techniques. Currently, Nghe An Customs Department has 12 affiliated and subordinate units, including 5 departments, 2 control teams and 5 customs branches at border gates and outside border gates, with 255 civil servants and labor contracts. The quality of the staff and civil servants is constantly improving in terms of professional expertise, politics, foreign languages, etc.

Nghe An Customs Department is implementing the reform, development and modernization plan for the period 2011 - 2015, oriented to 2020. 100% of the branches have deployed the VNACCS/VCIS automatic customs clearance system; the departments and units have been computerized and applied customs software. Thanks to that, the quality of work and service products are increasingly improved, meeting the increasing demand of trade, investment and tourism activities in the area.

The import-export turnover processed by Nghe An Customs Department has reached over 1 billion USD (882.2 million USD in 2016; 489.3 million USD in the first 6 months of 2017), import-export tax collection has reached over 1,000 billion VND (1,118.7 billion VND in 2016; 683.7 billion VND in the first 6 months of 2017) and is striving to be higher in the coming years.

Implementing the Resolution of the 18th Nghe An Provincial Party Congress, Resolution 26 of the Politburo on the direction and tasks for developing Nghe An province until 2020, the Nghe An Provincial Customs Department advised the Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee to issue Directive No. 12/2015-CT-UBND dated May 20, 2015 on "strengthening State management of customs in the area".

In the coming time, Nghe An Provincial Customs Department will continue to improve its organizational structure, improve the quality of its staff, invest resources in the physical facilities of the department and its branches, promote administrative procedure reform in customs procedures, and provide investors and businesses with the best, fastest, and most effective services.

On the other hand, Nghe An Provincial Customs Department will coordinate well with all levels, sectors, and local authorities to sign coordination regulations and exchange information to facilitate trade, investment, and tourism activities in the area. First of all, it is the relationship with Business Associations, representatives of the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and the Party Committee of the Business Bloc to discuss the mechanism for building a Customs - Business partnership agreement, creating solid trust and long-term stability between the Customs agency and the business community.

In addition, the Customs sector will work with partners to check the measurement of customs clearance time for each import and export shipment according to each type of border gate, bringing the customs clearance time at Nghe An border gates equal to or lower than the average level of the whole sector.

At the same time, there are solutions to nurture and develop revenue sources, striving to increase export and import turnover by 2020 by 3 times compared to present, export and import tax collection will reach about 2,500 - 3,000 billion VND, in 2017 alone, striving to achieve and exceed the assigned target of 1,400 billion VND to contribute to the whole province in completing the budget revenue target set by the Resolution of the 18th Congress of the Nghe An Provincial Party Committee; synchronously build the headquarters of the Department and modern branches, meeting the requirements of customs modernization.

On the occasion of the 72nd anniversary of its establishment, the Party Committee and leaders of Nghe An Customs Department would like to express their sincere thanks to the Provincial Party Committee, People's Council, People's Committee, Provincial Fatherland Front Committee, branches, authorities at all levels, mass organizations and the business community for their guidance, support and coordination in the past time and hope to receive more support and coordination in the coming time to build Nghe An Customs Department to develop more and more in a modern direction.

Chu Quang Luan

(Party Secretary - Director of Nghe An Customs Department)