HANOI, Aug. 1 (Xinhua) -- Vietnam poured nearly 4.3 billion U.S. dollars into importing completely-built automobiles and components for assembly in the first seven months of this year, witnessing a year-on-year surge of 69 percent.
Specifically, the country imported over 87,900 completely-built automobiles worth more than 1.9 billion U.S. dollars, up 365.6 percent in volume and up 319.5 percent in value, according to its Ministry of Industry and Trade on Thursday.
In 2018, Vietnam spent nearly 5.4 billion U.S. dollars importing completely-built automobiles and components for assembly, posting a year-on-year decline of 2.6 percent. Specifically, the country imported roughly 81,800 completely-built automobiles worth nearly 1.8 billion U.S. dollars, seeing respective decreases of 16 percent and 19.9 percent.
The ministry has proposed exempting locally-made auto parts from special consumption tax to foster the domestic automobile industry because the localization rate currently stands at only 10 percent.