HCM City (VNA) – Ho Chi Minh Cityplans to run a pilot car rental service for Government officials to reduceexpenditures, according to Vo Van Hoan, spokesperson for the municipal People’sCommittee.

The city will transfer all public cars tothe Voluntary Youth Public Benefit Service Company (BESCO) for management andrental.

The pilot will begin in five State agenciesand units, including the city People’s Committee Office, Department of Finance,People’s Committees of Binh Thanh and Binh Chanh districts, and the city’s FoodSafety Management Board.

Public vehicles with their drivers, escortsand security forces will be transferred to the company, and then departments,districts, and suburbs will rent cars and drivers.

Two cars will be arranged for each unitunder a Government decision on the management and use of cars in State agenciesand units.

The agencies and units must sign monthlycar rental contracts with the company. During the pilot period, 26 cars will beavailable for use for five units.

BESCO will also arrange 10 cars for 24 hourservice to meet urgent needs on weekends, overtime or public holidays. Thetrips will be charged per journey or by kilometre.

To reserve a vehicle, users will call areservation centre or use the TNXP CAR phone app or computer via the internet.

The monthly fee ranges from 20 million VND (881USD) to 28 million VND (1,233 USD) per vehicle. The quota is 2,000 km per monthper vehicle.

The salaries of drivers, escorts andsecurity forces will be approved by the city’s Department of Finance.

Hoan told Nguoi Lao Dong (Labourer)newspaper that the pilot would save money for the city budget and improve thewelfare and income of those working for the city government.

HCM City has an excess of around 700 publiccars, most of them old and damaged. Each year, the city pays a great deal ofmoney to maintain and repair public cars.

Currently, each agency manages 5-8 cars ata cost of about 15 million VND (660 USD) per car per month. Each unit has onlytwo cars, with a cost of 20 million VND (881 USD) per car per month.

With the pilot, the city expects savings ofmore than 100 million VND (4,404 USD) per month, equivalent to over 1.2 billionVND (52,842 USD) each year.

Further savings will occur because ofreduced spending on new car purchases.

The city’s old vehicles will be revoked andproceeds from sales will be remitted to the State budget.

Vietnam has about 34,241 public cars, eachof which costs around 320 million VND (14,091 USD), equivalent to 13 trillion VND(572 million USD) a year.

The Government plans to reduce the number ofpublic cars in the country to 30-50 percent by 2020, which is expected to savethe state budget about 3.4 trillion VND (150 million USD) per year. - VNA