MINISTRY OF TRANSPORT OF VIETNAM

Transcription

1 MINISTRY OF TRANSPORT OF VIETNAM Presentation by Mr. Pham Thanh Tung, Director General of International Cooperation Department f the Ministry of Transport of Viet Nam cum chief of office of the National Committee for facilitation of Asean and GMS Transport Agreements Việt Nam, 12/2015

2 Colleagues, Ladies and Gentlement First of all, on behalf of the Vietnam delegation, I would like to express our warm greeting to all participants to attend the Regional Meeting on Harmonization of legal instruments and Documentation for the cross border and Transit Transport by Road and my sincere thanks to ESCAP for the sponsorship extended to us. Taking this opportunity I would like to share with you information about the current status of the implementation of the cross border transport agreements by roads which have been signed in the form of bileteral and regional basis and shared with you some of our expriences on how to facilitatate and enhance the

3 Bilateral Road Transport Agreements What are the main provions of those agreements: Current status of implementations of bilateral agreements: Regional Road Transport Agreements Single Window Inspection and Single Stop inspection model Institutional arrangements: What problems faced when implementing bilateral agreements: What problems faced when implementing regional agreements:

4 1-Bilateral Road Transport Agreements There is the total length of km of road system in Viet Nam of which km is of highways and about 700 km of expressways. Viet Nam is bordering with China in the North, Laos and Cambodia in the West. So far, Viet Nam has signed bilateral Road Transport Agreements and related protocol to implement those agreement with all neigbouring countries. The content of these agreement are more or less identical to each others, except for some provisions due to the differences in terms of national laws and regulations and available conditions for implementing certain provisions

5 I 2- What are the main provions of those agreements: Almost provisions in the Bilateral Road Transport Agreements are identical to each others except for some differents in terms of cota given for the numbers of vehicles to be permitted to perform the cross border transport between the contracting parties, documents to be required for vehicles and drivers. Similar to the model of bilateral agreements proposed by ESCAP, such agreements consist of the main provisions, such as designation of routes and border gates; regular transport of passengers and goods by commercial vehicles; irregular transport by non commercial vehicles; issuance of permits for transport; cabotage; vehicle standards and specifications (weights and dimentions); transport of dangerous goods; custom regime; insurance regimes; join committee and dispute settlements; entry into force and amendments; and annexes and protocols to either further detail the content of each provisions or provide guidance to exercise such provisions;

6 3-Current status of implementations of bilateral agreements: Since Viet Nam has signed Road Transport Agreements with our neighboring counstries for a long time and since we have ugraded our annexes and protocols attached to those Agreements during the implementation so frequent. Therefor, so far it can be said that in general, the road transport agreements between Viet Nam and Laos, Cambodia and China have been performed well by all relavent authorities. According to the Agreements, once a year, a review meeting by the competent authorities of the contracting paries is conducted to review the implementation and discuss the changes or amenments to be needed and formed into MOU. All the provisions in the agreements have been legalized into our national laws and regulations. The remarkable progress is lying in the fact that at the early stage, commercial as well as non commerical vehicles are not allowed to peform the cross border operation but now they are permitted and number of vehicles permitted to perform cross border transport is increasing remarkably i,e between Viet Nam and Laos, there is no limits in term of number of vehicles to perform the cross border transport. Between Viet Nam and Cambodia, from 100 vehicles from the initial state of the agreement imlementation, now this figure is increased into 500 vehicles and 150 CLV vehicles. Taking into account the traffic increase recently, both sides are considering to open more border gates and gradually increase the cota for cross border transport. In addition to that we are trying to apply the model of one window inspection and one stop inspection with the provision of common cargo area (CCA) for faster cross border control in order to reduce checking time at the border gates and facilitate the movement of passengers and goods.

7 3-Current status of implementations of bilateral agreements: Viet Nam and China have signed the Road Transport Agreement since At the same time, two countries have also signed the Railway Cross Border Transport Agreement which had been conducted from For bilateral Road transport Agreement, at early stage, cross border transport of cargoes and passengers can not be performed vehicles of one contracting party to the destination inside the territory of the other constracting party. This means that passsengers and cargoes should be unloaded and loaded at the border areas. In 2011, both countries signed a Protocol to amend this Agreement to allow the cross border transport of goods and passengers. Both sides also provided the detailed guidance to vehicles and drivers involved in the cross border transport. Althought some difficulties are faced due to the differences in the national laws and regulations, the procedures required by the competent authorities of the either contracting parties (especially related with custom requirements). At the recent review meeting held in Quang Chau - China on December 2015, both sides reviewed the progress of the agreement implemenations and problems faced by the transport companies of both sides. It was reported that both sides have committed to consider and solve the issues faced by the transport companies and remove the unnessary procedures with the aim to facilitate the cross border transport between the two countries, facilitate the movement of perishible goods/agro-products in most convinient ways, taking into account that transport infrastructure of both sides are most ready to perform such arrangements.

8 4-Regional Road Transport Agreements: As you may know, Viet Nam, being as member of ASEAN has signed ASEAN related Road Transport Agreements and their related protocols and annexs, namely ASEAN Framework Agreement for Interstate Transport (AFAFIT), ASEAN Framework Agreement for Goods In Transit (AFAGIT), ASEAN Framework Agreement for Multimodal Transport (AFAMT). Some remaining protocols and annexes related customs procedures and customs in transit are going to be concluded and signed shortly. It is expected that starting from late 2016 or early 2017, those agreements and related protocols and annexes will be implemented amongst the members of ASEAN. In addition, Viet Nam, being a member of Greater Mekong Subregional Cooperation Programme (this programme is joined by 6 countries namely Cambodia, China, Lao, Myanma, Thailand and Viet Nam) has signed the Framework Agreement for the Facilitation of the Cross Border Movement of Goods and Passengers among the GMS member countries (abbreviated name as GMS CBTA). Trilateral MOU among Viet Nam, Laos and Cambodia were signed to allow intra-cross border trafffic between three countries.

9 5-Single Window Inspection and Single Stop inspection model under the GMS CBTA all the contracting parties agreed to apply wherever possible the SWI, SSI by singing an MOU between the related contracting parties (Article.). To implement such provision, Viet Nam and Laos have entered the MOU on Lao Bao- Denxavan border gates on 25 March 2005 along the East-West transport corridor. With tiredless efforts by both relavent authorities and with the assistance of ADB, on 6 th February 2015, Viet Nam and Laos have launched successfully the model SWI/SSI at these border check points. All the relavent authorities such as Customs, Quarantin and Immigrations have worked together to streamline the checking system, simplify the required documents, upgrade the communication system in such a way to apply this kind of modality. It is known that from January 2016, Thailand and Laos will apply the similar model at Savanakhet and Mucdahan border check points. If it is done so, the East-West Transport Corridor will be applied with the modern model of border control which in turn will lead to the smooth and effective movement of goods and passengers along this route. Viet Nam and Cambodia have signed an MOU on 6 th March 2006 to apply SWI/SSI at Moc Bai-Ba vet border check points. Due to difficulties in land availability at this border area, both parties agreed to apply modal of single windows in the initial state and when possible finding the location, both sides will apply SSI. Recently, it was agreed to jointly survey again to find the best way to conduct the SSI in the near future.

10 6-Institutional arrangements: The National Committee for Facilitation of the Regional Road Cross Border Transport Agreements was establised by the government. This office is chaired by one vice Minister of the Ministry of Transport with representatives from various government agencies such as customs, immigration, quarantin, finance Ministry (insurance schems/regime), foreign ministries.

11 7-What problems faced when implementing bilateral agreements: - Not really complicated and serious since the coordination only between two contracting parties seems to be easy. - Some issues to be still remained unchanged such as insurance scheme. The issurance premium issued by one contracting party can not cover liability of the vehicles and drivers in the territory of the other contracting parties. Although some arrangement have been improved such as insurance can be purchased at the border gates. - Quota still applied - Commercial defaults still exists during the implementation of the agreements.

12 8-What problems faced when implementing regional agreements: Those regional road transport agreements have been signed by the member countries, however transit transport provisions has been so far not implemented yet due to various reasons as follows: + Lack of infrastructure needed for transit cargoes and passengers; + Still lack of good and close coordination between the concerned authorities; + Misleading in understanding some provision of the Agreements; + Harmonized and common insurance scheme not yet established ( legal issues: liability, claims and jurisdition..). + Slow formulation and enactment of domestics legislation addressing transit transport/multimodal transport to be applicable to both domestic and international transport due to slow rectification of main framework agreements by some member countries)

13 MINISTRY OF TRANSPORT OF VIETNAM THANK YOU