Deputy Prime Minister Hoang Trung Hai on March 21 stressed that thefight against smuggling, fake goods and trade fraud has becomecomplicated and requires drastic measures and better cooperation amongrelevant agencies.

Speaking at an online conference onactivities to effectively deal with the problem this year, Hai asked theCentral Steering Committee for Anti-Smuggling, Counterfeit Goods andTrade Fraud to guide agencies and localities to re-examine and addresslegal loopholes to prevent wrong doings.

He urged the Ministry of Industry and Trade to help the committee implement anti-smuggling measures at the grassroots level.

At the meeting, representatives discussed barriers to their activities,including lenient punishment and a shortage of supportive equipment andhuman resources.

The Ministry of Public Securityforecast that this year would witness new crimes such as gold andforeign currency smuggled from neighbouring countries and coal and oreexports.

In 2011 alone, the ministry uncovered and crackeddown on nearly 70,000 smuggling cases worth hundreds of billions ofdong, and 6,100 cases of manufacturing and trading fake products andintellectual property infringements.

Also at the meeting,123 teams and 133 individuals were presented with certificates of meritfor their excellent performance last year.-VNA