Vietnam is estimated to produce 4 billion packs of cigarettes in 2006, up from previous years, according to local newspaper Youth on Monday.

Some 4 billion packs, excluding smuggled ones, will be made and consumed in Vietnam this year, the newspaper quoted Nguyen Thai Sinh, chairman of the country's Cigarette Association, as saying.

The country's Health Ministry estimated that the volume of local cigarette production annually increased by 10 percent from 2. 7 billion packs in 2000 to 3.5 billion packs in 2002 and over 4 billion in 2006.

According to statistics released by the ministry in 2005, over 50 percent of local men and around 2 percent of local women smoked cigarettes. Smoking causes 30,000-40,000 deaths in the country each year.

Vietnam, whose population currently is more than 83 million, is trying to reduce the number of smokers by imposing higher taxes on tobacco products, restricting investment in cigarette production, and raising public awareness in this regard.

Source: Xinhua