According to Akimov, who is also chairman of the Russiansubcommittee of the Russia-Vietnam intergovernmental commission for trade,economic and scientific and technical cooperation, the first automobile kits for assembly have already been shipped to Vietnam.

“380 kits are scheduled fordelivery to Vietnam this year, and 170 are currently on their way: Citylineminibuses on the base of Gazel,” he said.

As written in Izvestianewspaper previously, GAZ has plans to create a joint venture with Vietnam’sThanh Dat Group for automobile assembly in Lien Chieu industrial park in thecentral city of Da Nang.

GAZ is a leading automobilemanufacturer in Russia. The company’s product portfolio includes light andmedium-duty commercial vehicles, heavy-duty trucks, buses, engines, and over500 types of specialised vehicles./. VNA

Local content in cars woefully low

The automobile manufacturing and assembly industry has grown significantly over the past two years, but the ratio of local content in domestically assembled cars with up to nine seats is very low, ranging from 7% to 10%.

Vietnamese automobile manufacturers focus on importing cars, neglect production

In the first half of the year, the number of cars imported to Vietnam increased by 500 percent, while some models saw a sharp increase of 650 percent compared with the same period last year.