Hanoi (VNA) – Vehicle
owners in Vietnam will soon be able to buy their favourite registration plates
via auctions, with a pilot programme launching in five major cities, namely Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Da Nang, Hai Phong and Can Tho.
The Ministry of Public Security was assigned to run the programme
last month by Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc.
Colonel Tran Quoc Trung, deputy head of the ministry’s
Traffic Police Department said apart from the five selected cities, the
ministry would consider other localities if they met standards and were willing
to run the pilot the programme, reported Tuoi tre (Youth)
newspaper.
The ministry
plans to offer licence plate numbers which are believed to bring luck owners up
for auction. Other number plates will also be chosen at random.
A detailed
roadmap for the auction is awaiting approval from the Government, he said.
Colonel Le Xuan Duc,
deputy director of the department, said there were two methods to select
registration plates for auction. First, five numbers which are the same such as
88888 will be selected. Second, registration plates with the two last numbers
68, 86 would be picked up.
In Vietnamese, an alternative way to say the number six (luc) deriving
from Chinese sounds like loc meaning a windfall of money, and
eight (bat), also a Chinese spelling, sounds like phat,
meaning progress. Hence, the numbers 68 and 86 are very lucky. People also like
the number nine as the Chinese version has the same pronunciation as cuu meaning
everlasting.
According to Duc, the People’s Committee of each locality will set
its own starting prices for the auctions.
The auctions will be conducted publicly and transparently aiming
to limit bribery for the issuance of plate numbers and to increase the State’s
income, Duc said.
Additionally, the auctions aims to serve the demand of rich people
who want licence plates they thing will bring them luck, he added.
The ministry said the auction was expected to be widely operated
across the country after the pilot programme ends and the ministry conducts an
assessment of it.
Responses
A representative from the Ministry of Finance’s Public
Asset Management Department said it approved of the auctions.
Tran Quang Thang,
president of HCM City’s Institute of Economics and Management, said he applauded
the movement.
Thang said the
money gained from the auctions should be added to public funds to upgrade
public works as hospitals, schools and roads.
“In the past,
several people, including businessmen, paid an amount of money to individuals
to get their favourite vehicle registration plates,” he said, adding that this
could result in corruption and extravagance.
Now that vehicle
registration plates are being auctioned, the money would be added to the
State’s coffers, he said.
Nguyen Binh, a
businessman in HCM City’s District 3 said the move aimed to “kill two birds
with one stone.”
People got their
favourite vehicle registration plates while the State could earn more money to
spend on public works, he said.
Ton That Minh, a
resident of HCM City’s District 1, said both the poor and the rich could
benefit from the programme.
The rich could
get their favourite plates and the poor would benefit from upgraded public
services through money gained at the auctions, he said.
However, Phan Thi
Bich, a resident living in Binh Thanh district said, “It’s unfair because only
rich people can buy them.”
Some people asked if plate owners could sell their lucky plates to
others.
In response to the question, Colonel Le Xuan Duc said each vehicle
had only one plate, the owner could only a plate with the vehicle, not
individually.
Major General Tran The Quan, deputy chief of the ministry’s Legal
and Judicial Administrative Reforms Department said under the revised Law on
Management and Use of Public Assets, adopted by the National Assembly in June,
a person who buys vehicle registration plates via an auction can’t sell the
plates to someone without a vehicle.
It is estimated that the State could earn 5 trillion VND (222.2
million USD) a year from auctioning vehicle registration plates.-VNA