Features: Vietnam Says 'No' to Motorbikes

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Wednesday, October 30, 2002

Features: Vietnam Says 'No' to Motorbikes

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Vietnam's transport industry has proposed to put a temporary halt to granting motorbike ownership licenses in the country's capital Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City from November 1, 2002 in a bid to curb soaring road accidents.

The proposal, made to the government, has immediately affected the local motorbike market and worried the people in the two cities. Over the past few days, people made a rush for motorbikes although the prices were raised every day.

Motorbike registration offices are crowded with people coming to register motorbikes. Only at the motorbike registration office in Lang street in capital city of Hanoi, the number of people was estimated at between 200 and 300 with different kinds of motorbikes a day.

Nguyen Huy Hung living in 83 Lang Ha street said, "although motorbike prices have risen rapidly, I try to borrow money from myfamily and friends to buy a motorbike. But it takes me a long timeto register."

The prices of locally-assembled motorbikes and imported luxury scooters have now risen by 5 percent to 7 percent and 15 percent to 20 percent, respectively, over the past two months.

Yamaha's Sirius and Jupiter models are being sold at 23 millionVietnamese dong (VND) (1,530 US dollars) and 26 million VND (1,730dollars), 500,000 VND (30 dollars) and one million VND (US dollars)respectively, higher than recommended prices, while Yamaha Force and Honda @ luxury scooters shot up by 600 dollars and 1,000 US dollars respectively.

In the second-hand motorbike market of Dich Vong in Hanoi, the atmosphere of purchasing and selling have become unusually animated. Many motorbikes, which have had no customers before, arerevamped and sold with rising prices.

Despite the retail price hikes for motorbikes and the high demand of people, some agents, namely Honda, VMEP, have to close their factories in Vietnam due to lack of parts.

The government last month set an import quota of 1.5 million motorbikes for this year, of which 900,000 are set aside for 31 domestic assemblers and 600,000 are reserved for seven foreign assemblers.

However, most of foreign producers complained that the permitted volume is far below demand. Yamaha Motor Company has been the second foreign-invested motorbike assembler to close its Vietnam manufacturing plant after running out of parts, following its rival assembler Honda.

And the next one will be Suzuki. It has warned it will follow suit by the end of this month unless the government grants a reprieve on import quotas.

Local media said it's necessary to take urgent and concrete measures to curb urban traffic congestion and the road deaths in Vietnam, as the traffic accidents have been soaring alarmingly andkilled more than 10,000 people so far this year. Of the death toll,70 percent were caused by accidents involving motorbikes.

However, the motorbike restriction is only a stop-gap measure as the local public transport system has not yet developed and Vietnamese people's traditional means of transport has been motorbikes for a long time.

The number of motorbikes in Vietnam has rapidly increased, up 30 percent over last year and making up 95 percent of the vehicleson the road. The country, with a population of 80 million, has now nearly 10 million motorbikes, one of the highest per capita levels in the world.

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