HANOI: Vietnam’s automotive industry will enjoy the fastest growth in Southeast Asia in the next 20 years because of rising demand and help from the government, Vichai Jirathiyut, president of the Thailand Automotive Institute, said at a recent meeting in Ho Chi Minh City.
The Vietnamese automotive industry is forecast to churn out 220,000 units annually by 2020 and 1.5 million units by 2035 given strong support from the central government, Vichai at the meeting on Thursday last week.
The aging 67-million-strong Thai market buys around 880,000 units per year, so the 90-million-plus market of Vietnam with a younger age group will have higher demand for personal vehicles in the future, he said.
Official figures from the Vietnam Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (VAMA) showed that automotive sales in Vietnam reached 157,810 vehicles in 2014, up 43 percent compared to 2013.
Last year, sales of personal cars increased by 43 percent year on year, topping 100,000 units, while sales of trucks grew by 42 percent in comparison with 2013 to hit nearly 57,371 vehicles, the VAMA said in a report in January this year.
According to the Vietnamese Ministry of Industry and Trade, the local automotive industry will produce 200,000 vehicles in 2015, an annual growth rate of 4.4 percent.
In the Southeast Asian region, Thailand and Indonesia currently have a very competitive automotive industry but this will gradually change, Vichai said.
The Thais are focusing on manufacturing pickup cars weighing less than one metric ton and eco-friendly vehicles, for Thailand has the highest vehicle emissions standards regionally.
The country can help Vietnam when it is moving upward in the value chain of the automotive industry because Thai manufacturers hold many technological advancements, the president of the Thailand Automotive Institute added.
