Reducing more than 50% of units, adjusting management areas
At the conference to review the work in the first 6 months of the year and deploy tasks for the last 6 months of 2025 held on the morning of June 27, 2025, the Customs Department said that in the first 6 months of 2025, many key tasks on all three pillars: organizational structure, institutions - policies and digital transformation were synchronously completed.
The industry continues to strengthen customs supervision, fight smuggling, reform procedures and facilitate trade. The total import-export value reached nearly 391 billion USD, budget revenue from import-export activities is estimated at 221,500 billion VND, a sharp increase over the same period.
From March 15, 2025, the customs system will officially operate according to a 3-level model, with 12 units under the Department's agency block and 20 Regional Customs Branches, after the Ministry of Finance issued Decision 382/QD-BTC and then Decision 2019/QD-BTC to adjust the management area to suit the new provincial-level administrative unit. The whole system has reduced 485 units, equivalent to 53.77% compared to before.
By the end of June, the Customs Department had basically completed the organizational arrangement, including guiding the implementation of retirement and severance pay policies for 364 cases according to Decree 178. At the same time, the entire industry has adjusted its professional processes to comply with the new model, focusing on the areas of monitoring, inspection, handling of violations and technology application.
across all tasks according to 4 resolutions of the Politburo
The Customs Department has identified four resolutions of the Politburo as the central orientation for the entire industry's activities this year.
With Resolution 57 on the development of science, technology and digital transformation, the industry has organized a series of conferences and training courses on 4.0 technology and developed an action plan for the period 2025-2030. Some notable results include deploying online meeting software at branches, automating the process of assigning VNACCS/VCIS file checks from July 1, 2025 and launching the application "Vietnam Customs Data" to serve import-export data lookup.
Within the framework of Resolution 59 on integration, the Customs Department acknowledged the outstanding results when the representative of Vietnam was re-elected as Chairman of the Standing Technical Committee of the World Customs Organization (WCO). At the same time, the agency continues to promote cooperation with the United States and China to reduce the impact of trade tensions.
For Resolution 66 on institutional improvement, the Customs sector has reviewed 25 legal documents, focusing on serving the revised Customs Law recently passed by the National Assembly on June 25, 2025. In 6 months, the whole industry has completed 2 projects submitted to the Government, 5 projects submitted to the Ministry of Finance and 97 projects at the department level.
With Resolution 68 on private economic development, the Customs Department continues to implement solutions to support businesses to quickly clear customs, reduce procedures, connect the one-stop system with banks and logistics businesses, and at the same time promote the construction of the Digital Customs system.
Import and export increased by more than 15%
As of June 15, 2025, the total import-export value reached 390.91 billion USD, up 15.3% over the same period in 2024. Of which, exports reached 197.88 billion USD (up 13.7%), imports reached 193.03 billion USD (up 16.9%). The trade balance maintained a surplus of 4.84 billion USD but has decreased by nearly half compared to the same period.
State budget revenue from import-export activities reached 201.414 billion VND, equivalent to 49% of the estimate and increasing by 10.7% over the same period. It is estimated that in the first 6 months of the year, it will reach about 221,500 billion VND, with an average of nearly 1,850 billion VND per day.
Regarding anti-smuggling control, from December 15, 2024 to June 14, 2025, the Customs sector detected 8,561 violations, the value of violated goods was about VND 13,614 billion, paid VND 461 billion to the budget, prosecuted 8 cases and recommended prosecuting 54 cases. Notably, there were two cases of nearly 2 tons of drugs discovered and the seizure of 84,000 packs of Marlboro brand cigarettes smuggled to Canada - a route that had not recorded major violations before.
