HANOI, July 1 (Xinhua) -- Vietnam spent nearly 3.7 billion U.S. dollars importing completely-built automobiles and components for assembly in the first half of this year, posting a year-on-year rise of 79.9 percent.
Specifically, the country imported roughly 77,800 completely-built automobiles worth over 1.7 billion U.S. dollars, up 532.4 percent in volume and up 424.8 percent in value, according to its Ministry of Industry and Trade on Monday.
In 2018, Vietnam spent nearly 5.4 billion U.S. dollars importing completely-built automobiles and components for assembly, seeing a year-on-year drop of 2.6 percent. Specifically, the country imported roughly 81,800 completely-built automobiles worth nearly 1.8 billion U.S. dollars, posting respective declines of 16 percent and 19.9 percent.
The ministry has recently proposed exempting locally-made automobile parts from special consumption tax to foster the domestic automobile industry, because the localization rate currently stands at only 10 percent.