Ho Chi Minh City loses up to US$6 billion each year due to traffic jams, Tran Huu Minh, head of the office of the National Traffic Safety Committee, announced at a recent workshop on road traffic safety held in northern Vinh Phuc Province on Thursday.

The workshop, hosted by the National Traffic Safety Committee, saw the attendance of representatives of traffic safety boards, transport departments, and traffic police from Vietnamese cities, including Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi, and Da Nang.

According to Minh, Vietnam’s extreme rate of urbanization has led to a boom in vehicle ownership, with nearly three million motorbikes purchased each year in the country. 

Though the number of traffic-related injuries and fatalities has decreased in recent years, traffic congestion is getting worse.

Localities have adopted a variety of measures to deal with traffic congestion, but most of them are temporary.

In the near future, feasible long-term solutions are necessary.

“The reduction of traffic congestion and the improvement of traffic safety in Vietnam are vital to residents,” Minh stressed.

According to a report by the Ho Chi Minh City police, from January to August of this year, the city saw 1,360 traffic accidents which resulted in 429 deaths and 868 injuries.

As of the end of 2021, the city was home to more than 8.4 million vehicles, including 819,000 cars and 7.6 million motorbikes.

An average of 79 new cars and 309 new motorbikes are registered each day, Lao Dong newspaper reported.

Municipal authorities have come up with multiple solutions to cope with traffic jams, including controlling the number of private vehicles entering the downtown area and developing public transportation and traffic infrastructure projects.

However, these solutions seem unable to keep pace with the country’s rapid urbanization.

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