Customs officials check imported products. (Photo: baohaiquan.vn)Hanoi (VNS/VNA) - Minister,Chairman of the Government Office, Mai Tien Dung, has urged the Ministry ofAgriculture and Rural Development (MARD) to simplify quality control proceduresto facilitate imports and exports.
Speaking at a working session this week, Dungsaid that the ministry had achieved significant results in administrativereforms, but overlaps in management persisted and some procedures remainedcomplicated, hindering the circulation of goods.
He said that while some agriculturalproducts needed to be checked by more than one department under the ministry,there was still a lot of duplication of checks by several ministries.
For example, milk powder, animal feed andconfectionary raw materials received food safety checks from MARD and theMinistry of Industry and Trade (MoIT).
Dung said quality checks still accountedfor 72 percent of the total time for customs clearance, and added that furtherefforts were needed to simplify procedures to speed up the process.
“What can be removed, should be removed.What must be kept, should be simplified,” he said and stressed on the need forearly issuance of national standards to guide efficient checks.
The ministry planned to connect 26administrative procedures to the national single window system. To date, 11procedures have been connected. Deputy Minister of MARD, Ha Cong Tuan, saidthat the ministry would continue to check 508 existing administrativeprocedures and was expected to cut or simplify half of them.
In addition, the ministry would also reducethe categories of products, which must be checked before export, whileimplementing a risk-based management approach.
For products, which are now subjected toduplicated checks by MARD, MoIT and the Ministry of Health, Tuan said that theministry would propose to the Government to hold just one ministry responsible.-VNA
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