'Chasing' the Director of the Ministry of Health about procedures

That was the debate that took place at the working session between the Prime Minister's Working Group and 11 ministries and branches to inspect the tasks assigned by the Government and the Prime Minister related to specialized inspection of import and export goods this morning.

Starting from the opinion of VCCI Chairman Vu Tien Loc. He expressed concern that the regulation of the Food Safety and Hygiene Law on veterinary quarantine only applies to fresh food, and if applied to prepackaged food, it would be inappropriate. Therefore, he proposed to abolish this regulation.

VCCI Chairman Vu Tien Loc.

Director of the Food Safety Department Nguyen Thanh Phong said that the process of amending specialized inspections has overlapping products between health, agriculture, and industry and trade.

“The Food Safety Law does not regulate quarantine, but the Veterinary Law does. The Ministry of Health cannot force the Ministry of Agriculture not to implement it, because it is tied to the Veterinary Law, so we dare not abandon it,” Mr. Phong emphasized.

He proposed that the National Assembly should remove this regulation or that in epidemic areas, food safety inspections should be carried out while quarantine should be carried out...

Minister Mai Tien Dung added: “The Director should not make excuses for that. We have to look at the reality of our industry. The people above say that, but the people below do not. If it were that good, businesses would not have to complain.”

Minister, Head of the Government Office Mai Tien Dung

Minister Dung suggested: "You said you did a lot, so how much did you discover? You should announce it to the press."

The Head of the Government Office noted that this story shows that the institution has problems that need to be proposed for amendment.

However, the Director of the Food Safety Department affirmed: "The Ministry of Health makes absolutely no excuses."

He said that what he discussed was based on the principle of being straightforward, decisive, and handling the right thing. “Even when I am texting on my motorbike, I stop to respond. The Department can only do so much, the requests of large enterprises, some recommendations need to be reviewed and revised, some recommendations cannot be met,” the Department Director said.

Enterprises respond to 5 no's

Dr. Nguyen Dinh Cung, Director of CIEM, said that the risk of losing food safety lies in other groups of goods, not in the group of packaged foods imported from outside.

Dr. Nguyen Dinh Cung, Director of the Central Institute for Economic Management

According to Mr. Cung, imported packaged foods and outside manufacturers already have criteria and standards for declaring safety, so they are not the group that injects impurities into them.

"As for using 2 or 3 rows of vegetables and injecting impurities into shrimp as a basis to justify that using this procedure is necessary, in my opinion, the scientific and practical basis to protect this are not linked together," Dr. Nguyen Dinh Cung refuted.

The director of CIEM said that businesses have been complaining about this procedure for 5 years. "I think their complaints are correct, completely correct," Mr. Cung affirmed.

He said that the reaction of enterprises to specialized inspection procedures revolves around 5 no's: not legal, not transparent, not predictable, not effective and not in line with international practices.

Dr. Cung explained that the lack of transparency is reflected in the procedures that stipulate how many documents are required, but when submitting, the processing staff requests many documents other than those required. For example, the requirement for the contract to be labeled in Vietnamese, those requirements have nothing to do with food safety and hygiene.

Suggest replacing the confirmation paper by sending a notice to the Ministry of Health

The Director of the Food Safety Department continued to argue: "Mr. Cung said that it is not in accordance with international practice, I have already reported, only Japan and some developed European countries, in ASEAN including Singapore, do not have pre-inspection but switch to post-inspection.

The rest from China to Thailand, Philippines, each product has a production license number on the product code. So it cannot be said that it is not in accordance with international practice.

Director of Food Safety Department, Ministry of Health Nguyen Thanh Phong

Mr. Phong expressed that what was raised was for "comrades to share, the state management agency is under extreme pressure" and asked the working group members to propose more suitable methods of change.

VCCI Chairman Vu Tien Loc immediately suggested: "We only suggest that instead of that confirmation paper, the enterprise should send a notice to the Ministry of Health."

However, the Director of the Food Safety Department still compared the reality of other countries and affirmed once again: "I say this with absolutely no excuses", but in Vietnam it has not been done yet.

According to Vietnamnet.vn