HANOI, July 31 (Reuters) - Communist Vietnam aims to triple automobile output in 2005 to 120,000 vehicles from 2003 as part of a government plan to boost the transportation sector.
The Southeast Asian country, where only 41,000 vehicles were assembled last year, has car and truck assembling plants operated by 11 foreign auto makers, including Toyota Motor Corp. and General Motors Corp. .
"The general target is to build an automobile industry so that it becomes capable of meeting the higher demand of local market and to join international markets," said Nguyen Xuan Chuan, chairman of Vietnam Society of Automotive Engineers, a state body that advises the government on the sector.
Chuan, speaking at a conference on auto fuel in Hanoi on Saturday, also forecast auto production to reach nearly 240,000 units by 2010, more than half of which would be trucks with an estimated 25 percent comprising passenger cars.
He said most of the additional auto output next year would come from truck production as the government seeks 55,000 trucks for its rural transportation projects in 2005.
Chuan also said the state plans to boost the use of locally made components to 40 percent of vehicle content next year from an average of 10 percent at present, a move that has spurred protests among foreign car makers in the country.
Hanoi slapped a special consumption tax of up to 24 percent on locally assembled cars along with a 25 percent tariff on imported auto parts from January this year as it sought to force producers to use more parts made in Vietnam.
Car sales during the first half of this year fell 18.72 percent year on year to 12,790 units due to the high duties and taxes.