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Announcement of the report "Business Satisfaction and Time Needed to Carry Out Administrative Procedures through the National Single Window" (Photo: The US Embassy)

The seminar announced the results of a survey entitled “Business Satisfaction and Time Needed to Carry Out Administrative Procedures through the National Single Window” conducted by the USAID, VCCI, and GDVC from September 2019 to March 2020, according to VOV.

The National Single Window (NSW) is a one-stop-shop for customs clearances. It is expected to help simplify import/export administrative procedures in compliance with international practices and standards.

The launching ceremony saw the attendance of USAID/Vietnam Deputy Mission Director Craig Hart, Deputy Minister of Finance Vu Thi Mai, VCCI Chairman Vu Tien Loc, and more than 100 representatives from the private sector and government agencies. At the seminar, delegates discussed major conclusions of the report, the role of the NSW system, and current trade reforms in Vietnam.

At the launching ceremony (Photo: VOV)

In his opening speech, VCCI Vice President Hoang Quang Phong said the survey attracted contributions of around 3,100 businesses about 12 administrative procedures and public services that are most processed on the National Single Window.

Surveyed procedures are managed by the State under the Ministries of Industry and Trade, Transport, Agriculture and Rural Development, Science and Technology, and Health. According to respondents, these services considerably helped them save time and costs.

Dau Anh Tuan, head of the VCCI Department of Legal Affairs, shared that almost all the major functions of the window are operating smoothly, with 95 percent and 93 percent of respondents discovering it easy and relatively easy to use. However, 27 percent were dissatisfied with connectivity errors, 20 percent complained that processing remains slow, and 26 percent faced difficulties in imports quality inspection procedures.

Businesses and associations representatives offered suggestions to accelerate electronic payment, handle challenges in the use of digital signatures, and supply utilities to support firms on the window. Ministries and agencies were also demanded to improve transparency and simplify document forms, reported by VNA.

USAID will support Vietnam with major trade facilitation tools such as the NSW (Photo: Vietnam Plus)

For the past two decades, Vietnam has grown to be one of the most open economies in the world. However, due to inefficient border procedures, Vietnam is slow in improving its trade competitiveness. The specialized inspection of Vietnam involve multiple ministries, leading to major delays in border clearnaces, causing traders time and money, and hurting small and medium enterprises (SMEs) the most.

Over the past two years, the USAID Trade Facilitation Program has cooperated with the GDVC, VCCI, and other partners to reduce the trading time and cost in Vietnam. Particularly, in July 2019, the USAID and Vietnam’s Ministry of Finance launched a five-year USAID Trade Facilitation Program, which aimed at supporting the Vietnamese government to deploy a risk management approach to customs and a specialized inspection. This will help Vietnam to achieve its development goals while reducing trading time and costs.

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