Applying technology effectively, the human factor plays an extremely important role

Pham Duyen Phuong, Deputy Director of the Customs IT and Statistics Department

The WCO’s selection of Vietnam as a host country for organizing the conference is a good opportunity for Vietnam Customs to approach and learn from experiences to develop technology, including the successful implementation of a smart customs model. Could you share more about this?

This conference brings customs authorities together to meet, exchange experiences, and learn from each other about management technologies. This is also a place where management views and requirements from businesses in the field of cross-border trade will be given and where Customs authorities and businesses meet to share experiences and best practices toward the balance between control and facilitation based on technology application.

This is also a forum for Customs agencies to exchange experiences and technology applications with management and technology experts from universities, research institutes, and technology companies to display their technology products and solutions to support Customs authorities in management as well as trade facilitation.

I think this is a very good opportunity for Vietnam Customs to learn experiences, exchange, find new technology trends, and consider applying those technologies appropriately to ensure the goals of facilitating trade while still ensuring control and national security as well as social security and community safety.

The application of modern technology for digital transformation is one of the top priorities of the Vietnamese government. In the field of customs, the customs development strategy by 2030 also sets the goal of building regular and modern Vietnam Customs, on par with the customs of developed countries in the world. To move towards building digital customs, a smart customs model, how will Vietnam Customs apply new and smart technologies from customs of advanced countries in the world, sir?

We should understand clearly that the Customs agency is not a technology researcher but a technology user. Therefore, to serve management goals, I think the first thing is to choose appropriate technology and solutions because, in the context of many changes in current commercial practices, businesses have tended to apply e-commerce more, that is, paperless transactions.

Such paperless transactions pose a huge challenge for the Customs agency to provide tools to support the management and find out the compliant businesses. For those involved in trade fraud and smuggling, it is an extremely big challenge to find them among a huge amount of information. Thus, from a personal perspective, I think that the application of technologies related to Big data and big data analysis is extremely important.

Smuggling tricks as well as transport methods of prohibited goods are very sophisticated, especially with the risks of drugs and precursors... there is a need to apply modern technology in screening and the Internet of Things (IoT) is a potential as well as an extremely urgent requirement for the Customs agency.

The third application is the AI. AI can only be achieved when data is digitized and we have big data. So when we apply Big data, IoT, and AI, the information will be received and processed by these solutions, and the human resources will focus on controlling target high-risk subjects. Thus, we can save money, improve efficiency as well and ensure trust in the management.

Vietnam Customs is aiming to take the lead in implementing a digital Government with the digital customs and smart customs model. So, according to you, what should Vietnamese technology companies do to accompany and support Vietnam Customs in this reform and modernization process?

In fact, technology application cannot be done alone, we need the support of technology companies. We hope that the technology companies will continue to accompany the customs through strategic cooperation agreements to research and build solutions for the coming period. We look forward to the contribution of domestic leading technology companies in building digital customs and smart customs to implement the Digital Government.

We also hope that through forums such as this conference, domestic technology companies will also seek partners and opportunities to gain experience, modern technology, and solutions from foreign countries to propose Government agencies to apply them in management work.

To be able to apply technology effectively, besides the technological factor, the human factor plays an extremely important role.

When the smart Customs model is launched, what should people and businesses do to ensure the most efficient IT application in reality?

I think that the indispensable factor in the digital customs model and the digital government ecosystem is businesses and people. In addition to being the beneficiaries and served subjects, people and businesses have the responsibility to comply with the law.

I also hope that the business community as well as people share with Government agencies the following works: First, all systems cannot operate on their own, but must operate on certain legal foundations. I want to emphasize the role of businesses and people in contributing to Government agencies in developing policies and laws, this is the most important role.

Second, a service cannot remain stable forever, it must change over time to catch up with development trends. And, the important is the responsibility for monitoring and assessment of businesses and people for that service. The person who benefits from the service will give the best judges for the service. If the assessment is positive, it will be an encouragement for the Government agencies to perform better.

But if the assessment is negative, it is a motivation for the Government agencies to change. Therefore, I think that the participation and assessment of service quality, the quality of policies, and the quality of law-making by businesses and people is extremely important.

The Customs agency always launches communication activities to disseminate laws and policies in general and instruct on the use of customs technology applications in particular. We hope businesses and people will pay more attention to these activities to contribute to perfecting them and to gain knowledge and skills to be able to use them smoothly for their work.

Thank you!