Hanoi (VNA) –Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has asked the Ministry of Finance to submit adraft action plan on the promotion of ASEAN SingleWindow (ASW), National Single Window (NSW), and trade facilitation by the endof August, and a draft decree on the work by the end of September this year.

Addressing a nationalconference on promoting ASW, NSW, and trade facilitation in Hanoi on July 24,the PM stressed the need to continue building a better business environment forall economic sectors with an aim to enter the leading group of the ASEAN andmeet the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD)standards.

The PM highlightedthat the action plan and decree should include breakthrough, more effective andpractical solutions, especially in management of import-export goods, thusdealing with problems and strengthening both the import-export activities aswell as regional and international trade.

Underscoring the need tocontrol and combat trade frauds and smuggling, the PM believes that it isnecessary to design strict measures to deter organisations and individuals fromviolating regulations on food safety or committing trade frauds.

He hailed the effortsof the National Steering Committee for ASW, NSW andTrade Facilitation (Steering Committee 1899), as well as relevant ministriesand sectors, especially the business community, in implementing tasks assignedby the PM and Government in the field.

He asked all ministries and sectors to workmore closely together to improve the business environment, which would in turnenhance the national competitiveness and support sustainable growth.

The ratio of goods subjected to specialisedexamination should be reduced to under 15 percent, while the list of goods andproducts subjected to specialised inspection as well as inspection proceduresshould be cut down by 50 percent, the PM requested.

At the same time, examination methods andcriteria should be made transparent by issuing evaluation standards, he stated.

The PM also asked provinces and cities tocooperate closely with the Steering Committee 1899 and the Ministry of Financeas well as other relevant agencies to supervise the implementation of NSW andASW mechanisms and trade facilitation in each locality.

According to Deputy PM Vuong Dinh Hue, whois head of the Steering Committee 1899, the average cost for customs clearancefor a lot of goods has been cut by 19 USD. As of the end of 2017, the cost wascut by 205 million USD on 10.18 million custom declarations. The time forkeeping goods has been shortened by 15 million hours for export and 33 millionhours for import.

The Ministry of Finance reported thatcurrently, 11 ministries and sectors have been connected to the NSW to process53 administrative procedures on nearly 1.26 million sets of dossiers of 22,000enterprises.

In particular, all customs procedures canbe processed through the NSW, which draws 99.65 percent of enterprises.

Since January 1, 2018, Vietnam officiallyexchanged their certificate of origin (C/O) model with four other ASEANcountries, namely Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Thailand. Since June 10,total C/Os that Vietnam received from the four countries were 28,509. Thecountry also sent 14,392 C/Os to those countries.

However, the ratio of administrativeprocedures processed through the NSW remains few at 53 procedures, making itunlikely to reach the target of 143 procedures by the end of the year.

Meanwhile, many businesses complained aboutsome of the shortcomings in the implementation of NSW mechanisms. They saidthat many procedures are still complicated and the sharing of information amongmanagement agencies remains ineffective. –VNA