The exchange of the deal was witnessed by Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and his Dutch counterpart Mark Rutte who is on an official visit to Vietnam.

Deputy Minister of Finance Vo Thanh Hung (R) and Dutch Ambassador to Vietnam Kees van Baar on November 2 exchange the MoU.

The agreement was signed during Prime Minister Mark Rutte's visit to Vietnam in 2019. An article on the agreement states that customs offices of the two countries will together decide on detailed arrangements within the framework of the agreement to facilitate the implementation.

On that basis, the General Department of Vietnam Customs and the Customs Administration of the Netherlands negotiated and then completed negotiations and domestic legal procedures to sign the cooperation pact on the occasion of the 50th founding anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two countries and more specifically, on the occasion of Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte's official visit to Vietnam.

The Customs Administration of the Netherlands is one of the partners that have regularly cooperated and assisted the General Department of Vietnam Customs. The two sides have organised activities to exchange experiences in customs management at seaports, risk management, and customs management at airports.

The two sides have also closely coordinated in providing and verifying information to control and combat smuggling.

In the coming time, within the framework of their cooperation, they will strengthen coordination in information sharing, e-commerce, green customs, digital transformation, customs inspection/supervision of goods requiring intellectual property protection; goods customs value, and origin.

The two sides expressed their confidence that with the signed cooperation documents, their cooperation will generate practical results suitable to their strengths and issues of mutual interest.

It is expected that at the end of November, a high-level delegation of the Customs Administration of the Netherlands will visit Vietnam.

Informal expenses for customs clearance decline

Each company has to spend about 14.9 hours to complete a cross-border trade transaction and incur direct costs of around 3.8 million VND (165 USD) for logistics services, according to the 2022 Administrative Procedure Compliance Costs Index (APCI) report.

Vietnam’s export revenue up 13.5% in March: customs data

Export revenue in March was estimated at 29.57 billion USD, up 13.5% over the previous month, according to data released by the General Department of Customs.

Black pig offering ritual – beautiful customs in Tan Phuong village

(BGO) – Keeping the traditional customs, annually on lunar February 11 – 12, people in Tan Phuong village or old Phung Phap village in Tan My commune, Bac Giang city (Bac Giang province excitedly organize the village festival to conduct black pig (Ong Lang) procession and offering ritual. It is an opportunity for all villagers near and far to gather, offer incense and commemorate the great contributors to the village and country.  

Measures sought to facilitate customs clearance at Vietnam-China border gates

Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Tran Quoc Khanh and Executive Vice Chairwoman of People's Government of China’s Guangxi Cai Lixin recently discussed measures to facilitate customs clearance of goods via border gates of the two countries.

Vietnam, China bolster customs collaboration

The eighth dialogue between the Customs Departments of three northeast provinces - Lang Son, Cao Bang, Quang Ninh - and their counterpart in Nanning, China, took place in Lang Son on November 18 in virtual form.

Source: VNA