Last year, the country produced and assembled more than 250,000 cars, meeting about 70 percent of domestic automobile demand. There were more than 40 firms participating in the automobile manufacturing industry. However, most of them were small and medium-sized enterprises so their localization ratio remained low. Some products were fully localized but application of science and technology in these products was not high. Therefore, every year the country has to import above US$3 billion worth of components, spare parts and accessories to serve automobile assembling and repairing. Meanwhile, localization ratio of other countries in the region is at an average of 65-70 percent with a few countries even exceeding 80 percent.
Amid the situation, the agency warned that if Vietnamese automobile manufacturers do not have solutions to raise localization ratio, it will be extremely difficult for them to compete with other automobile manufacturers, especially when the ASEAN Trade in Goods Agreement takes effect, sending import tariffs of cars from countries in the ASEAN to Vietnam to zero percent.
