Hanoi (VNA) - The need toregulate the vehicle-service industry is crucial to achieve sufficient growthand meet consumer needs, especially during the 4.0 Industrial Revolution.

This point was made at a workshop on service conditions on January23 by Nguyen Dinh Cung, Director of the Central Institute for EconomicManagement (CIEM).

His view was supported by Phan Duc Hieu, the institute’s deputydirector, who was concerned that recent transport service draft laws would notbe sufficient to solve shortcomings in practice nor overcome rapid changes inthe market.

Hieu also acknowledged thattraffic safety requirements for transport businesses under the currentVietnamese Law on Road Traffic were not clear and restricted business goals formost transport enterprises.

Sharing this view, Tran Duc Nghia, a board member of the VietnamLogistics Association, mentioned one specific law provision - stipulating howtransport business units must have parking spaces available and underlocal governance.

Nghia said such a rule should be removed, since it was appropriatein practice for passenger transportation, but not suitable forfreight.  

Some other road traffic provisions were considered unnecessary andtoo specific to bind enterprises, creating unfairness between different transportsectors, such as strict conditions of ownership, which he thought wereunreasonable.

Hieu said that current regulations stood on the side of suppliers,not demand or harmony between transport enterprises and consumers.

He hoped unfairness would be eliminated by future formulation ofmedium- and long-term policies, since benefiting consumers must be seen thebasis for designing legislation.

A need for such a counterbalance stemmed from rapid urbanisation,expansion of services, application of information technology and fiercecompetition. .

Nguyen Van Lap, director of the Nuoc Ngam Bus Station, explainedhis unit’s difficulty, by mentioning restrictions on the allowed number ofautomobile rentals, limiting the market and legal rights of ownershipfor car rental companies.

Nguyen Cong Hung, deputy director of the Hanoi Taxi Association,said that traditional taxis businesses were constrained by too many businessconditions. And as the price of gasoline surged, they were not able tore-adjust their fares in time. 

He recommended that for rate changes below 5 percent,taxi businesses should not need to notify state agencies, so they can cut down oncosts and time.

Hung also proposed the use of yellow licence plates for taxiswithin city limits, which he believed would help regulate and create equity forall transport service vehicles.

Cung further said that prohibiting or restricting the use of electronictools was contrary to State policies on encouraging technology to improve thetransport sector.

In the end, he said that in addition to ensuringtraffic safety, there should be regulations to encourage the transportindustry, especially as the potential was huge. "Policy makers just needto put customers’ interests first," he said

The workshop was organised by the institute in collaboration withthe Logistics Association and the Vietnam Automobile Transportation Associationin Hanoi, focusing on present issues and policy recommendations for businessconditions.-VNA