Vietnam turned out 13,774 automobiles in the first four months of this year, a year-on-year surge of 40. 6 percent, according to the country's General Statistics Office on Monday.

Between January and April, foreign-invested enterprises in Vietnam manufactured 9,985 automobiles, up 35.2 percent. Meanwhile, the country made 852,703 motorbikes, a year-on-year rise of 36.3 percent.

The country spent 203 million U.S. dollars importing automobiles, components and spare parts in the first four months, down 3.9 percent. Specifically, it imported 3,000 completely-built automobiles worth 67 million dollars, seeing respective declines of 47 percent and 24.9 percent.

Vietnam spent 239 million dollars importing motorbikes, components and spare parts in the four-month period, up 44.9 percent, according to the statistics office.

The country currently houses 13 automobile joint ventures between foreign firms and local ones with total registered capital of nearly 700 million dollars and combined annual capacity of 173, 000 units. Besides, it has dozens of local enterprises specializing in producing automobile parts and assembling simple vehicles.

Early last year, Vietnam with a population of more than 83 million had some 700,000 private-owned cars compared with 17 million motorbikes, according to statistics from the country's Transport Ministry.

Source: Xinhua