Driving Development? The Problems and Promises of the Car in Vietnam

Abstract

The private car comes with promises of modernity and comfortable mobility for the growing middle class in Vietnam. Vietnam's government has also targeted the domestic automobile industry as a "spearhead industry" in an attempt to achieve industrial upgrading. Paradoxically, the government is simultaneously restraining the market for this industry through imposing high taxes and fees on cars, making them available only to a limited number of people. This article discusses the promises and problems of the automobile in Vietnam. It analyses policies related to the development of the automobile industry, and discusses the reasons for the relative failure of the project. The article argues that the failure is linked to weaknesses in Vietnamese development strategies, but also to the potential problems an expansion in car ownership in Vietnam would lead to. The paper contends that the car represents a development dilemma between industrialisation and urban mobility, and that environmental, energy and social concerns add to the rationale for limiting car ownership. Furthermore, while forces promoting car-driven industrialisation appear to be gaining ground, the requirements for regional economic integration may challenge the future of the infant automobile industry.

Hanoi on wheels: emerging automobility in the land of the motorbike

“…People are now rather worried about the high costs, the difficulties of driving in Hanoi and the strict traffic rule enforcement as well as lack of available parking space, he continued (Interview, April 2013, translated from Vietnamese). While there are still government-induced disincentives to buying cars through high taxes, these are not ideologically driven, but rather pragmatic approaches to raise public funds as well as to a serious development challenge driven by the inability of the streets of Vietnamese cities to accommodate widespread car ownership (Hansen 2016).…”

“…The Vietnamese Government has attempted to develop a domestic auto industry, but so far has placed high taxes and fees on domestic car consumption (this may be changing, see Minh Hung 2015). Different ministries disagree on how to deal with the car, but as Vietnam prepares to open its borders to imports from other south-east Asian car manufacturers, car ownership may increase even more rapidly in the future (Hansen 2016).…”

“…Or in Kopytoff's (1986) terminology, although the world of commodities is indeed marked by homogenisation, the cultural and social 'biographies' of things may differ significantly across societies and cultures. Although automobility seems to represent perhaps the closest we get to a 'global blueprint of modernity' (Hansen 2016), the messages a car conveys must be understood in their context.…”

In-Migration and Housing Choice in Ho Chi Minh City: Toward Sustainable Housing Development in Vietnam

“…As a number of neighborhoods in HCMC have organically developed with self-built housing, inner roads within these communities were spontaneously generated with an average width of 1.5 m. In the period from 2001 to 2005, for example, the amount of self-built row housing units accounted for 84.8% of total housing constructed in HCMC, while industrialized housing production accounted for only 15.2% [37]. Only two-wheeled vehicles can reach the inner houses of these districts since the builders tried to maximize land utilization by illegally expanding the floor area [38,39]. This requires pedestrians and two-wheeled vehicles to share the roads, leaving adults and especially children vulnerable to traffic accidents [3].…”

Price Determinants of Affordable Apartments in Vietnam: Toward the Public–Private Partnerships for Sustainable Housing Development

“…Commuters using motorbikes battle daily against not only heavy traffic jams but also contaminated air quality. A report from the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment in Vietnam showed that 70% of pollution gases were generated from motorized vehicles in cities [57]. Motorbikes are the main polluters and the drivers are, consequently, exposed to the contaminants every day [58].…”