[sustran] Passenger car and attitude toward it in Vietnam

[Carlos F. Pardo]

Interesting article about Vietnam and increasing car use available from
http://vnexpress.net/Vietnam/Xa-hoi/2005/05/3B9DE820/ . Please see below for
English translation.

Best regards,

Carlos F. Pardo
Project Coordinator
GTZ Sustainable Urban Transport Project (SUTP)
Room 0942, Transport Division, UN-ESCAP
ESCAP UN Building
Rajadamnern Nok Rd.
Bangkok 10200, Thailand
Tel: +66 (0) 2 - 288 2576
Fax: +66 (0) 2 - 280 6042
Mobile: +66 (0) 1 - 772 4727
e-mail: carlos.pardo at sutp.org
Website: www.sutp.org


-----Original Message-----
From: Khuat Viet Hung [mailto:kviethung at yahoo.com] 
Sent: 25 May, 2005 2:17 AM
To: Clean Air Initiative -- Asia
Subject: [cai-asia] Passenger car and attitude toward him in Vietnam!

Dear All,
The lastest news in Hanoi (from
http://vnexpress.net/Vietnam/Xa-hoi/2005/05/3B9DE820/
dated on 24/5/2005, 11:04 GMT+7) provide a quite clear
image of car booming in Hanoi and the attitudes of
business, officials and experts about it.
It was not a good translated document, but the
following version presents by very concern about the
situation.
Hope it gives you all some fun.

Khuat Viet Hung
*******************************************************
Cars parking fee in Hanoi can be increased up to VND
1 Million/month

According to the figures provided by a staff of Hanoi Traffic Police Bureau
(TPB) : everyday about 70 autos (most of them are passenger cars) are newly
registered in Hanoi (between 9th and 23rd May 2005 the number of autos
increased about 67-74 units per day) while the daily new registered
motorcycles are about 200 units daily. In some cases, number of new autos
were 100 units per day, approximately.
According to the Vehicle Management Bureau (VMB) under Hanoi Department of
Transport and Urban Works and Services (TUPWS), number of autos in Hanoi
increased from 52.536 units in 1994 to 149.333 in 2004 (the figure of TPB is
150.000 units). The total number of autos in Vietnam is about 600.000 units
(in 2004). In the year 2004 only, Hanoi recruited about 17.000 new autos
that took over the championship for the last decade. If the average price of
an auto is VND 400 Million (USD 25.316) then Hanoians spent about half of
billion US dollars for buying autos in 2004. According to Vietnam Auto
Manufacturers Association (VAMA) the passenger cars are leading in numbers
of autos sales while their prices were not cheap. 
In the first four months of 2005, Vietnam TOYOTA sales 3059 units,
including 1259 Zace, 500 Camry 2.4, 386 corolla Altis and 398 Vios that are
all passenger cars. The sale of Ford Vietnam is lower, 1111 units that all
are passenger cars. Car price continuously increase while the sale does not
reduce.
According to a report of Hanoi People Council in the last meeting in 2004,
if there is no effective passenger car reduction strategy, number of autos
in Hanoi will increase for 246% within the next 5 years. Together with the
current 149.333 units, any kilometer of road in Hanoi will carry 715 autos.
The threat of traffic congestion is clear and serious.
A strategy was then adopted: Limiting the growth of auto fleet in balancing
with road infrastructure. In fact, the measure having a one year parking
agreement before having a car registration returned a low effective
outcome.
The temporary prohibition of new car registration, as it is applying for
motorcycle, seems to be an acceptable (in fact this measure is also
ineffective).
Until today, TUPWS and TPU (the main consultants of Hanoi People Committee)
have not a magic sword. 
However, some managers, officials and experts believe that Hanoi should not
so worry about that hot booming of passenger cars. Their discussion is: With
more than 3 millions people but Hanoi has only 150.000 autos. The rate is
still extremely low. IN addition, the growth of cars will bring many
economic benefits by enhancing the car-supported-industries, for example:
repair and maintenance services, spare parts manufacturing that will support
to develop the domestic car industry. Moreover, traveling by car is
safer and better than traveling by motorcycle. 
Mr. Hoang Duy Hung, Director of Hanoi Car Parking
Company (CPC) emphasized: although the number of cars is booming, we should
not prohibit that development. The pressure of car use to urban
infrastructure is strength, he said, but this is a planning error and not
a vehicle mistake, for example total area for parking (car) is less than
1% of total urban area and the area for all road infrastructure is only 6%
of total urban area while this rate in developed countries is 25%.
Currently, the capacity of 135 parking lots under CPC is serving for only
20% of total parking demand. In order to reduce demand pressure, CPC is
preparing to build 6 new parking lots (Bac Yen Vien, Binh Quynh,
Gia Thuy 2, Mai Lam, Linh Nam, Xuan Phuong) with total area more than 20 ha.
The plan is also covering the upgrading of Ngoc Khanh parking lot that will
be a multi-stories parking lot with the first trial automatic charging
technology. In assuring its business, CPC recommends to change the
term of parking fee to the term parking price.  In detail, the monthly
parking price for car will increase from VND 325.000 (USD 21) per month to
VND 800.000-VND 1000.000 (USD 50 - USD63) per month. The single price will
increase from VND 5000/2 hours to VND 5000/1 hour. In the city center,
single parking price can be VND20.000/1hour. This will be an effective
measure to manage the car booming. Some transport experts recommends for the
increase of registration fee and to impose a car use fee in the urban area.
For example, an amount of USD 1000-USD2000 should be charged for any new
registered car, thus, Hanoi will have daily more than one billion VND. With
a VND 2 million monthly car use fee, Hanoi will have VND 250 billions per
month.  By these only two tools, Hanoi  will collect about VND 3.000
billions (USD 190 millions) for its road infrastructure investment. For the
non-Hanoi-cars, a single travel ticket should be applied for the same
purpose. Mr. Nguyen Hoang Hai, Deputy Director of VMB (Hanoi TUPWS) said:
Temporary prohibition of new car
registration is not yet needed.  As the Singaporians experiences, deeper
traveling of private car in to urban area higher cost will be charged, with
the automatic pricing system , he continued:  In addition, for new car
registration the owner have to join a bid for getting registration quota of
his new car. So, only the persons who have real car travel demand will
register his car and accept to contribute for building infrastructure. Hanoi
should learn from this lesson.
Mr. Nguyen Van Quyen, Deputy Director of Vietnam Road Administration (VRA)
said:  this growth rate has not been reached to the point that needs to be
limited.He emphasized:  according to the decree number 162/2002 of Primer
Minister on the Auto Industry Plan in Vietnam, at the end of the year 2010,
our country will have about 1.3million autos. Therefore, the
current growth rate (14-15% per year) will reach the figure of 1.3 million
autos in 2010. This figure is in our projection and the limitation is not
needed  

***********************************************************
Khuat Viet Hung M.Eng,
Verkehrsplanung und Verkehrstechnik, TU Darmstadt
Petersenstra_e 30, 64287, Darmstadt, Deutschland
Tel: + 49  6151 16 2026,  Fax: + 49-6151 16 4625


		
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