The Customs Department of Ho Chi Minh City will pilot the Vietnam Automated Cargo and Port Consolidated System/Vietnam Customs Information System (VNACCS/VCIS) from November 15.

Deputy head of the department Nguyen Huu Nghiep said that enterprises have already used e-customs but mostly for data transmission, while customs agencies still have to process procedures in manual ways.

The application of the new system, funded by the Japanese Government, will improve the customs management and benefit enterprises much more than the current method, he added.

It will minimise the intervention by customs officers in dealing with procedures. On the other hand, this system also requires more data input, technology update and cooperation from both enterprises and customs agencies.

To prepare for the piloting, the department has organised a training course on the new system for over 1,000 enterprises.

VNACCS/VCIS will be fully applied from April 1, 2014.

According to the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), up to 98 percent of customs declaration forms (30 – 40 million) in Japan are processed through the system.-VNA