A customs officer is guiding business-people to complete procedures. (Photo: VNA)HCM City (VNA) – The Ho Chi Minh CityDepartment of Customs held a dialogue with over 150 businesses from theRepublic of Korea (RoK) on July 10 with a view to facilitating customsclearance at local ports of entry.
Director of the Department of Customs Dinh NgocThang said the annual event aimed to identify and address obstacles in thehandling of customs clearance procedures at ports of entry, and update firmsabout new regulations on export-import activities.
It was also a chance for the department tolisten to businesses’ proposals on fine-tuning customs mechanisms and policieswhile enhancing the connectivity between the two sides to build trustworthyrelations, he added.
At the dialogue, officials from the Department ofCustoms updated Korean companies about new regulations on customs management inVietnam and answered relevant questions.
They pledged to fulfil all trade facilitationcommitments, including reducing the time needed for dealing with customsprocedures for exports from 108 hours to 70 hours, and for imports from 138hours to 90 hours.
The HCM City department will also review thelist of goods subject to specialised examination to advise the Ministry ofFinance and the General Department of Vietnam Customs to cut down the rate ofthese goods to under 15 percent, thus creating the best possible conditions forenterprises to step up trading activities, they added.
Yoon Yoo Young, Director of the Korea Trade-InvestmentPromotion Agency (KOTRA) in HCM City, said about 5,600 Korean companies areinvesting and doing business in Vietnam, contributing to 35 percent of thecountry’s annual export turnover.
Nearly 2,900 of the enterprises have theircustoms procedures handled in HCM City. Therefore, the Department of Customs’ timelyrealisation and removal of obstacles are important to enhancing the twocountries’ trade and investment partnerships, he noted.
Korean businesses highly valued the department’sachievements in reforming administrative procedures and applying informationtechnology in handling customs procedures. They also called on the departmentto propose to higher agencies the task of fixing shortcomings in existingpolicies and legal documents in order to to harmonise management and economicdevelopment targets. -VNA
VNA
