Gone are stacks of handwritten declaration forms, queues of people and vehicles waiting for information checks, and cumbersome paperwork. At Mong Cai International Border Gate, these procedures are being replaced by convenient, rapid QR codes enabled by digital technology. Behind those QR codes is a breakthrough effort by border guards to modernise border management.
We visited Bac Luan II Border Gate at a time when soldiers, residents and ethnic communities in the northeastern border area were joyfully celebrating Quang Ninh becoming a city. Despite the busy flow of people and vehicles completing procedures, what stood out most was the orderly and smooth operation. With a quick scan of a QR code, all information on the driver, vehicle, type of goods and managing entity was immediately displayed and synchronised on the Border Guard’s management system.
According to Lieutenant Colonel Le Khanh Duy, an officer of the Mong Cai International Border Gate Border Guard Station under the Quang Ninh City Border Guard Command, functional forces previously needed three to five minutes to check and cross-check a paper dossier. With the application of digital technology, the process has now been reduced to just one or two seconds. This figure demonstrates the significant effectiveness of digital transformation in border management.
Beyond making the management of freight vehicles more convenient, the software for managing people entering and leaving the border-gate area, deployed by the Mong Cai International Border Gate Border Guard Station, is also proving effective in practice. All data on people who regularly work in the border-gate area and border residents have been synchronously digitised, and each person has been issued a card integrated with an individual QR code.
Centralised electronic data storage enables the Border Guard to tighten security and promptly detect violations while still ensuring a civilised process and respecting people’s time. After more than two months of determined pilot implementation, the solution has produced positive results. The Mong Cai International Border Gate Border Guard Station has issued more than 6,000 QR codes for vehicles entering and leaving in connection with import-export activities, while more than 600 people who regularly work in the area have been issued QR-code cards.
The application of QR technology is not merely a technical improvement, but a firm step in the roadmap towards building a “smart border gate” model in line with the policy of the Party and the military. The solution has delivered dual benefits: substantially reforming administrative procedures and improving transparency and openness in management, while creating strong momentum for border-gate economic development by speeding up the movement of goods and reducing logistics costs for businesses.
By Hong Viet
