Vietnam ranks fourth among the countries that house the largest amount of motorbikes in the world, according to Motorcycles Data’s statistics in 2018.Accordingly, the Asia-Pacific region is the “gold mine” of motorcycle manufacturers in the world. The five largest global motorbike markets are concentrated here. India ranks first and the runner-up is China, followed by Indonesia, Vietnam and Pakistan.
Traffic jam on a Hanoi street during peak hour. Photo: Pham Hung
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The number of motorcycles in Vietnam keeps rising, according to the National Traffic Safety Committee’s report announced at a teleconference in Hanoi on July 22. In the first six months of 2019, more than 1.63 million motorbikes have been put into circulation, bringing the total number of to about 61.3 million motorbikes.
In the first half of 2019, Vietnamese people bought more than 8,300 motorbikes per day. Although Vietnam’s market potential for motorbikes is number four in the world, motorcycle sales in the country are in the top.
The National Traffic Safety Committee also reported 8,385 traffic accidents in the first six months of this year, killing 3,810 people and injuring 6,358 others. The figures dropped compared with the same period last year.
Traffic police handled nearly two million cases of traffic violations, issuing fines of over VND1.2 trillion (US$51.6 million), They seized 163,990 driving licenses and 292,000 vehicles.
In the time ahead, the Ministry of Transport will amend the Law on Road Traffic with more severe punishments on administrative violations in the sector.
The Ministry of Public Security will strengthen patrol to control, detect and strictly handle violations which are the direct causes for traffic accidents including overspeeding, drink-driving, not wearing seat belt on cars and helmet on motorbikes, among others.
