Vietnam spent 367 million U.S. dollars importing automobiles and spare parts in the first seven months of this year, a year-on-year fall of 41.1 percent, according to the country's General Statistics Office on Friday.

In the period, Vietnam imported 7,000 completely-built automobiles worth 128 million dollars, seeing respective decreases of 37.3 percent and 29.3 percent. Many local vehicle dealers attributed the smaller volume of imported automobiles as well as recent shrunken sales of vehicles in the domestic market to the wait-and-see attitude of potential car buyers in 2006.

Under a recent government decree on management of imports and exports in the 2006-2010 period, foreign cars which have been used for five years downward are eligible for being imported from May 1. However, due to high taxes, only 40 second-hand cars entered Vietnam between May and early July.

Automobile joint ventures in Vietnam sold 15,940 vehicles in the first seven months of this year, down 14 percent against the same period last year, according to the Vietnam Automobile Manufacturers Association (VAMA).

However, the automakers saw month-on-month increase in sales for three straight months starting in April, VAMA said, attributing the rise to the fact that not many Vietnamese potential customers have bought imported second-hand cars as expected due to high selling prices caused by high tariffs.

Vietnam currently houses 13 automobile joint ventures with total registered capital of nearly 700 million U.S. dollars and combined annual capacity of 173,000 units.

By mid-2005, every 145 Vietnamese people had a car, compared with the rate of 4-5 in Malaysia, 9-10 in Thailand and 30-32 in the Philippines, said VAMA.

Source: Xinhua