Deputy Director General of Vietnam Customs Nguyen Van Tho also spoke about the development orientation of the Customs sector in the future. In particular, the sector would concentrate on the development of women and the policy on continuing expanding professional fields for female officers. Customs News spoke to the Deputy Director General at the seminar.
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| Deputy Director General of Vietnam Customs Nguyen Van Tho. Photo: Thái Bình |
Could you tell us about the Customs sector’s orientation on reform and trade facilitation?
Deputy Director General Nguyen Van Tho:
The policy and orientation of the Customs sector in reform and trade facilitation have been widely disseminated through Customs News to the business community and society. I would like to mention three issues throughout the Customs sector that are being implemented.
Firstly, the issue of building institutions to facilitate trade activities. For many years, the Customs sector has focused on building, amending and minimizing administrative procedures to facilitate trade. In particular, the Customs sector studied and approached commercial practices as well as international standards to include in the Customs process as well as the application of customs procedures. Through annual business dialogues, the Customs sector had listened to and promoted institutional reform.
Secondly, the General Department of Vietnam Customs has implemented Decision No. 38/QD-TTg of the Prime Minister approving the scheme on reforming the model of quality and food safety inspection for imported goods, towards specialized inspection of a focal point at the border gate to facilitate trade activities.
In 2020 and 2021, the Customs sector focused on this policy. During this period, the Customs sector was supported by the business community as well as the Government’s agencies and departments in transferring functions and tasks from other sectors. Previously, specialized inspection was concentrated in many ministries and sectors, but now the focal point is the Customs authority. This has the consensus of ministries and sectors, especially the business community.
Third, the Customs sector had constantly improved, increased investment in equipment, science and technology. Most recently, the Ministry of Finance issued Decision 97/QD-BTC approving the policy of “Outsourcing information technology services to implement Digital Customs”. The entire system of experts was focused on building this content. The Customs sector was striving to put into practice by 2023, creating breakthroughs and maximum convenience for businesses.
After 77 years of construction and development of Vietnam Customs, what are the contributions of female officers and employees of the Customs sector to the development of the sector, especially in the recent period of reform and trade facilitation?
Deputy Director General Nguyen Van Tho:
It has been 77 years since the establishment of the Customs sector. At the beginning, there were very few female officers, but now, the force of female customs officers has continuously grown in all aspects.
During that process, through wars as well as later economic construction, Customs women contributed a great deal, no less than men. Now, the Customs sector has more than 5,000 female officials, accounting for nearly 50% of the whole sector; from the professional operation field, modernization reform, research to other stages at the border gate, the force of female Customs officers is present. The number of female Customs officers involved in management work has increased. Many female officials hold key positions in the industry.
The draft Customs development strategy for the 2021-2030 period sets the goal of building a regular and modern Vietnam Customs, on par with the customs of developed countries in the world, leading in the implementation of digital government with smart customs model. Could you tell us more about the solution to achieve this goal? What is the role of women in the Customs sector in the implementation of the Strategy?
Deputy Director General Nguyen Van Tho:
Regarding the Strategy for Customs reform and modernization in the 2021-2030 period, the Strategy outlined eight groups of solutions to successfully implement modern, smart Customs, on par with developed countries in the world. I would like to highlight some solution groups that have the role of women in Customs.
The first was a group of solutions on building organizational structure and human resources.
Currently, nearly 50% of human resources in the sector are female. Most recently, the General Department of Vietnam Customs held recruitment round, through the results of the exam, the number of successful women candidates was higher. It proved that female human resources currently have strengths in terms of competence. In the 10-year strategy, the Customs sector would focus on training human resources, in which the current issue that the world, as well as Vietnam, was interested in was female human resources.
Besides the current expertise, the industry’s policy would continue to expand professional fields for women in the near future. In the policy of the Government, the Ministry of Finance, and the General Department of Vietnam Customs, it also aims to increase the percentage of women participating in management at all stages and in all fields from the central to local levels.
The Customs sector has three levels, including the General Department level, Customs Department level of provinces and cities and Customs Branch level. In the human resource solution, the Customs sector has given priority to the use of female human resources, proactively assigning jobs, and has a methodical training orientation for female officers.
The second is a group of solutions for cooperation and partnership between Customs and enterprises. The Customs sector would continue to promote the results achieved in the 2010-2020 period because this period had very fulfilled the dialogue between Customs and enterprises. For the business community in general, every year, the General Department of Vietnam Customs organises dialogue conferences; at the same time, it also has dialogues with private business communities such as Japanese enterprises, Korean enterprises, American and European enterprises.
Through dialogue, the Customs sector received a lot of initiatives and proposals, especially regarding problems of the business community in order to research and come up with solutions.
In addition, the Customs sector also focuses on training the system of customs broker agents. This was the connecting force between Customs authorities and enterprises. Enterprises carry out customs procedures through those agents. Businesses can reduce interactions with Customs through this team.
Thank you!