Lang Son establishes a safe “green zone”, promoting import and export activities

Since the beginning of the year until now, 3 land border gates (Huu Nghi, Tan Thanh, Chi Ma) in Lang Son province, although still carrying out customs clearance activities, according to statistics, more than 20 times have had to be temporarily suspended. Customs clearance due to China’s implementation of urgent measures to prevent and control the epidemic. This has caused the total import-export turnover of goods through the border gates of Lang Son province in the first 3 months of the year down 43.5% compared to the same period last year, of which, export turnover alone decreased by more than 77%.

Following the direction of Deputy Prime Minister Le Van Thanh, the People’s Committee of Lang Son province directed relevant departments and agencies to quickly develop a plan to organize the establishment of a safe “green zone” at border gates to ensure safety. The fight against the Covid-19 epidemic is at the highest level, thereby creating a consensus with the Chinese side on epidemic prevention and control, promoting import and export activities of goods through the province’s border gates.

The “green zone” in Lang Son province is set up with 3 layers, including: buffer layer (including parking areas outside the border gate such as cargo transshipment area, non-tariff area…); the second layer is the functional force directly managing (managing the workers at the port and yard enterprises, service activities participating in activities at the border gate); The third layer is called the core area (controlling the drivers of the Dedicated Driver Team). People, vehicles and goods before leaving and entering the border gate area are strictly controlled according to these 3 layers with the goal of not letting any cases of SARS-CoV-2 infection enter the border gate. , minimizing the risk of having to suspend customs clearance activities.

Major Le Van Chat, Head of Tan Thanh Border Guard Station, said: “The establishment of this safe green zone is extremely important at this time to meet the epidemic prevention requirements of the Chinese side. in the work of customs clearance of goods and contribute to solving the congestion at the border gate, especially for export agricultural products of our country. Therefore, this is a practical and must-do plan to meet the epidemic prevention needs of both sides, ensuring that the border gate area is a green area, and this option still needs to be developed and supplemented. more so that it can bring long-term and sustainable effects to serve the import-export work of Vietnam and China.”

Along with the implementation of the establishment of the “green zone”, Lang Son province has also increased exchanges and talks with the competent authorities of Guangxi in China to effectively deploy the method of delivery and receipt of exported goods. Imported at Huu Nghi – Huu Nghi Quan international border gate pair, Tan Thanh – Po Chai border gate pair according to the contactless customs clearance model.

The process of implementing this method, due to its new implementation, in the early days, the functional forces as well as the enterprises of the two sides were still not smooth in coordination, leading to the results not being as expected. However, at present, on average, every day at Tan Thanh border gate, there are more than 100 successful import and export vehicles, solving part of the backlog of vehicles at the border gate areas.

Mr. Vu Long, a driver carrying bananas from Dong Nai province to Tan Thanh border gate said: “Personally, I find this new method quite comprehensively meets the requirements for epidemic prevention. In the past, it was necessary to deliver the car to the Chinese drivers, from the point of view of the loss of property, sometimes it cannot be controlled, but after using this method, we also feel quite secure when we can freely protect your property. The delivery method is also faster, the clearance time depends on the density of the vehicles, but there are very fast trips, only about 2 days or later, about 1 week, then I can return home. family already.”

It can be seen that the establishment of a “green zone”, or the implementation of new methods of freight forwarding at this time, are the optimal solutions in the current epidemic situation and show the drastic participation of the Government. Lang Son province in improving customs clearance capacity, improving import and export situation.

Mr. Hoang Khanh Duy, Deputy Head of the Management Board of Cua Dong Dang Economic Zone – Lang Son said: “In order to limit the congestion of goods and promote import and export through the area, in the coming time, we will continue to coordinate with us. with relevant departments and branches to direct forces to improve inspection processes and procedures for people and goods to make the most of the day’s customs clearance time to improve customs clearance efficiency; Strengthen understanding of the situation, prevent negative behaviors to contribute to ensuring information security, creating a healthy and transparent import-export environment. Along with that, it will continue to monitor and grasp the regulations of the Chinese side, especially measures for quality inspection, quarantine, food safety, and origin for agricultural products, flowers. results to promptly notify and recommend to localities, growing regions, traders and businesses”.