A monitoring mechanism implemented synchronously and regularly is a motivation for ministries and sectors to accelerate administrative reform. To implement one of the tasks assigned by the Government regarding this issue, on May 20, Deputy Director General of Vietnam Customs Hoang Viet Cuong chaired a meeting with representatives of the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) and USAID to agree on the plan and the deployment method.
National Single Window expanded widely but not deeply
At the conference on supervision of solutions for specialised inspection reform and Customs clearance time reduction for import and export goods held by the Vietnam Fatherland Front Central Committee, the National Single Window mechanism was highly appreciated due to its achievements in the past year. However, shortcomings in the implementation this mechanism were also recognised. Specifically, the deployment of the mechanism is not synchronous and difficult to exploit and access speed is still slow and unstable; problems related to the processing of declarations by State agencies are not synchronised; and the handling of administrative procedures by the State agencies on the National Single Window Portal are not timely. Currently, the National Single Window mechanism is aiming to directly process administrative procedures for customs clearance, but has not paid much attention to sharing information for State management.
Recently, Notice 105/TB-VPCP dated March 22, 2019 of the Government Office announced the conclusion of Deputy Prime Minister Vuong Dinh Hue at the fourth meeting of the National Steering Committee on ASEAN Single Window, National Single Window and Trade Facilitation. Accordingly, he assigned the General Department of Vietnam Customs to coordinate with VCCI in developing and establishing a monitoring mechanism for the task performance of ministries and sectors under the plan and programme of the Government through the announcement of publications on annual reports relating to the measurement of the time for processing of administrative procedures and customs clearance; and to assess the satisfaction of the business community in the process of implementing public services through the National Single Window.
Implementing this request, Deputy Director General of Vietnam Customs, Nguyen Viet Cuong said the deployment of the National Single Window has met initial requirements. Currently, 13 ministries and sectors are connected and 173 administrative procedures are connected to National Single Window with more than 2.1 million processed dossiers and more than 29,000 participant enterprises. However, to deeply and widely deploy the National Single Window mechanism and bring practical benefits to the participants it is necessary to study accurately. The direction of Deputy Prime Minister is an opportunity for management agencies to review and evaluate the effectiveness. “The assignment of Deputy Prime Minister to the General Department of Vietnam Customs and VCCI to develop and establish a monitoring mechanism for the task performance of ministries and sectors under the plan and progamme of the Government is also a responsibility and shows the trust of the Government to the Ministry of Finance (the General Department of Vietnam Customs)-the Standing body of the 1899 Committee; VCCI is the representative agency for interests of the business community,” Cuong said.
Create motivation to promote ministries and sectors
Cuong said the meeting aims for units to agree on plans, views, and methods for the implementation. The General Department of Vietnam Customs and VCCI will complete a progamme and plans to deploy the Notice 105 of the Government Office and inform ministries and sectors for the implementation.
According to Dau Anh Tuan - Head of VCCI’s Legal Department, the implementation of the General Department of Vietnam Customs is in line with the goal of enhancing the quality of public services, with the evaluation and feedback of users. Tuan said that in customs clearance, the Customs agency only accounts for one stage, the rest is related to many ministries. Therefore, if there is an objective and independent assessment, it will show shortcomings, putting pressure and promoting ministries and sectors to reform. It will provide more information for the Customs sector for its management. Enterprises will understand the efforts of State management agencies to comment and feedback.
Director and Deputy Director of Standing Board of Customs Modernization and Reform Department Kim Long Bien said that to set up a monitoring mechanism and assessment, the General Department of Vietnam Customs has coordinated with VCCI and USAID to unify deployment methods, assign tasks between concern parties, and estimate expenditure for the implementation and relevant contents.
Expected evaluation and monitoring contents include measuring customs clearance time for import and export goods. Specifically, the measurement method will use the World Bank method to determine goods clearance time.
The General Department of Vietnam Customs shall measure the time for processing administrative procedures of the relevant ministries and sectors via the National Single Window. Specifically, the data from the National Single Window will be dumped to determine the time for processing administrative procedures of ministries and agencies.
There is also the goal of assessing the satisfaction level of the business community with for the public service performance of ministries and sectors and relevant agencies via National Single Window. The assessment will be conducted through questionnaires for selected enterprises to assess the satisfaction of the business community for public services through the National Single Window.
"Results of surveys will be summarised, published publications, announced reports; assessed to have experience to deploy in the next years,” Bien said.
Source: VCN
Key words: establishing, monitoring mechanism, promote, unified deployment, the National Single Window
