Trust, support, help and develop together

Vietnam and Laos Customs pay special attention to building, maintaining, preserving and developing cooperative relations towards more and more substance and effectiveness.

Overview of the Vietnam-Laos Customs Directors General Conference, November 19, in Hanoi. (Source: TCHQ)

On November 19, in Hanoi, Vietnam Customs organized the Vietnam-Laos Customs Directors General Conference.

Attending the conference were Director General of Vietnam Customs Nguyen Van Tho, Director General of Laos Customs Phoukhaokham Vannavongxay and representatives of the leaders of the General Departments of Customs of the two countries.

Speaking at the opening of the Conference, on behalf of Vietnam Customs, Director General Nguyen Van Tho happily welcomed Director General Phoukhaokham Vannavongxay and the high-ranking delegation of Lao Customs to visit, work and hold talks with Vietnam Customs.

In recent years, in order to foster cooperative relations, the Customs agencies of the two countries have also sent many working delegations to visit and exchange experiences in customs management.

The results of the visits and working sessions show that the cooperation between Vietnam Customs and Laos Customs is built on trust in cooperation, support, and mutual assistance for mutual development.

The special friendship between Vietnam and Laos has been nurtured through the development stages of the two nations. Continuing that tradition of special friendship, Director General Nguyen Van Tho emphasized that the Customs of the two countries also pay special attention to building, maintaining, preserving and developing the cooperative relationship between the two Customs agencies and bringing the cooperative relationship towards more and more substance and practicality, facilitating economic, trade, investment and travel exchange activities between the people of the two countries.

Vietnam Customs always respects, preserves and cares about further developing this special relationship. Therefore, this Conference is an opportunity for the two Customs agencies to look back on the cooperation journey and discuss action plans for 2025.

Sharing with pride, Director General of Lao Customs Phoukhaokham Vannavongxay said that in recent times, Lao Customs has achieved many positive results in all aspects of work.

In particular, from 2021 to present, the budget collection work of Lao Customs has made great strides, growing year by year. Notably, from January 1 to November 15, 2024, Lao Customs collected 15,200 billion Kip in budget, completing the estimate assigned by the Lao Ministry of Finance and increasing by 41% compared to the same period in 2023.

Along with budget collection, in other aspects of work such as: building and amending legal documents; developing human resources, modernizing customs, international cooperation..., Lao Customs has also achieved many important results.

In particular, according to Director General Phoukhaokham Vannavongxay, Lao Customs has deployed the Electronic Customs Declaration System with 20 modules and has completed the connection with the information technology systems of ministries, branches and enterprises.

In addition, Lao Customs always prioritizes human resource development to improve operations in state management of customs.

Director General Phoukhaokham Vannavongxay said that the exchange, sharing and support in professional activities of Vietnam Customs in recent times have brought many useful results for Lao Customs in the process of development.

Director General Nguyen Van Tho and Director General Phoukhaokham Vannavongxay exchanged the cooperation minutes. (Source: TCHQ)

At the Conference, the leaders of both sides agreed that the cooperation and mutual support activities between the two Customs agencies over the past many years have basically met the requirements of improving the effectiveness of state management of customs of both sides. At the same time, the friendly cooperation relationship has ensured the implementation of international commitments to which both sides are members as well as contributed to enhancing mutual understanding and tightening the good cooperative relationship between the Customs agencies of the two countries.

In order to further strengthen and develop the cooperative and mutual support relationship towards the goal of facilitating and ensuring security for Vietnam-Laos trade, on behalf of Vietnam Customs and Laos Customs, Director General Nguyen Van Tho and Director General Phoukhaokham Vannavongxay agreed to approve the cooperation plan in 2025.

Accordingly, in 2025, the two agencies will implement 6 coordination contents. Specifically, the two sides will hold talks and exchange experiences on anti-smuggling investigations within the framework of the Memorandum of Understanding on anti-smuggling investigations between the Vietnamese and Lao Ministries of Finance.

Vietnam Customs will send officers to train and improve the capacity of Lao Customs officers related to the collection, analysis and processing of information from intelligence sources. At the same time, it will send officers to train and improve the capacity of Lao Customs officials in the work of controlling, investigating and handling arrests, criminal and drug cases.

The two sides will also exchange experiences on methods of determining value, origin and classification of import and export goods; exchange experiences on post-clearance inspection; and organize a conference of Directors General of Laos-Vietnam Customs to evaluate the results of implementing the proposed plan.

The 2024 cooperation results of Vietnam Customs and Laos Customs confirmed that the two sides have completed all activities according to the Cooperation Plan approved by the leaders of the two countries' Ministries of Finance, including: Bilateral talks between Hanoi Customs and Vientiane Customs (from August 19, 2024 to August 24, 2024); Bilateral talks on anti-smuggling (from August 27-29, 2024). At the same time, the two sides acknowledged the results achieved in exchanging information on anti-smuggling investigations and customs law violations.

In order for this activity to bring about real and timely results in serving the customs management work of each side, the two sides agreed to continue to prioritize support in verifying requests and providing information, especially on drugs and precursors, and promptly providing news on cases that may violate the laws of each side.

In addition, cooperation activities at the local level have also been effectively implemented by both sides, contributing to enhancing mutual understanding and trust, and enhancing the effectiveness of coordination between the customs agencies of the two countries in controlling and facilitating cross-border trade.

Source: https://baoquocte.vn/hop-tac-hai-quan-viet-nam-lao-tin-tuong-ho-tro-giup-do-cung-phat-trien-294350.html