Tan Son Nhat Border Gate: Improving Administrative Procedures

Tan Son Nhat Border Gate: Improving Administrative Procedures

On August 3, Chairman Le Thanh Hai of the Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee had a working session with city leaders, local departments and agencies, leaders of the Southern Airport, police and customs officers of the Tan Son Nhat border gate to agree on priorities and policies in the reception of foreign investors.

It is a concrete measure by Ho Chi Minh City in its efforts to improve the local investment environment to attract capital from foreign countries. As planned, from September 1, investors arriving in Ho Chi Minh City will be welcomed at immigration border gates. They will have their investment procedures completed by the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Planning and Investment or the Ho Chi Minh City Export Processing Administration. Nguyen Nguyen Hung, director of the Southern Airport, said that each day the Tan Son Nhat airport received about 18,000 people mainly between 11am and 2pm, and, consequently, the number of people waiting to complete immigration procedures was very high. Meanwhile, the airport has yet to be upgraded with more counters for immigration procedure services and is still equipped with outdated equipment and facilities. Late this month the Tan Son Nhat airport will, therefore, be upgraded to double its capacity of receiving 7.5 million passengers per year to 15 million in 2006.

After hearing reports from relevant agencies, Chairman Hai instructed the Tan Son Nhat airport and the customs agency to provide instructions on immigration procedures to investors in many languages when they are on board or at the airport. The city authorities will support part of the investment capital for buying screening machines, computers and cameras. The Southern Airport will be the owner of these assets while the customs agency and border gate police will be allowed to exploit employ them in their operations.

The Southern Airport was asked to report its project to the city authorities on August 15, so that it could be discussed by relevant bodies. The customs agency also proposed the removal of declarations of visitors passing through the ‘green gate,’ which will be submitted to the Ministry of Finance for consideration. Hai also asked the customs agency, industrial parks, export processing zones and high-tech parks, which had yet to appear on the city’s website, to accelerate their participation on the website to publicly announce the new procedures.

Before the new procedures are implemented the Southern Airport and units at the border gate have been instructed to give priority to guests who are on the list for quick import procedures by using the VIP gate or opening another gate for entrepreneurs. To support entrepreneurs, the Department of Planning and Investment of Ho Chi Minh City will provide one-year priority cards to members of executive boards and directorial boards of enterprises, or investors who are applying for investment licences. The Southern Airport announced that it was ready to receive information and cooperate in completing immigration procedures for investors, so that from September 1^st investors would feel a refreshing wind of change when arriving in Ho Chi Minh City.

• B.H