Vietnam spent 625 million U.S. dollars importing automobiles and spare parts in the first 11 months of this year, a year-on-year drop of 36.8 percent, according to the country's General Statistics Office on Monday.

In the period, the country imported some 11,000 completely- built automobiles worth 184 million dollars, posting respective declines of 31.1 percent and 29.3 percent.

Vietnam imported 17,000 automobiles totaling 280 million dollars in 2005, seeing respective decreases of 24.3 percent and 13.2 percent against 2004.

Automobile producers and assemblers in the country generated total sales of 26,890 vehicles in the first three quarters of this year, a year-on-year decline of 5 percent, according to the Vietnam Automobile Manufacturers Association.

The carmakers are reducing their products' prices, offering more attractive promotional campaigns and better after-sales services, in a move to boost their sales.

Vietnam currently houses 13 automobile joint ventures with total registered capital of nearly 700 million dollars and combined annual capacity of 173,000 units.

By mid-2005, every 145 Vietnamese people had a car, compared with the rate of 4-5 in Malaysia, 9-10 in Thailand and 30-32 in the Philippines, said the association.

Source: Xinhua