Wednesday, 16 May 2012 11:53 Mizzima News(Mizzima) – In an effort to further upgrade vehicles in Burma, the authorities will now allow migrant workers living abroad to import vehicles when they return to Burma.
Car imports by Burmese migrant workers were temporarily suspended in the past, said domestic media reports.
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| Traffic in Rangoon is dominated by decades-old cars. The government is
moving to allow citizens more options in buying vehicles. Photo: Mizzima |
Earlier this month, the authorities allowed citizens holding foreign exchange accounts to import cars freely, provided the accounts are in one of two state-run banks.
Burmese authorities said they are moving to enable the public to buy cars freely from car showrooms or through importation. Vehicle prices in Burma, however, remain among the highest in the region, in spite of recent moves to lower import taxes.
In early May, Mizzima reported that Burmese citizens with foreign exchange accounts can now import passenger cars in models of 2007 and above.
The accounts must be in the state-run Myanmar Foreign Trade Bank (MFTB) or the Myanmar Investment and Commercial Bank (MICB), said the Car Import Supervisory Committee.
Minister of Commerce Win Myint, who head’s the project, said Burma is taking measures to enable the public to buy cars freely from dealer showrooms or by importing vehicles.
In February, Mizzima reported on the newest twist in car buying: specialized Internet websites. The online buying and selling of used cars has spawned a number of new websites, which dealers say threaten the tradition way of doing business.
The government has allowed a steady steam of newer models into the country in a program to replace older models, but one result is that many buyers were not satisfied with the traditional broker-dealer method.
“Before I discovered some car trading websites, I had to rely on brokers and had to regularly telephone them to make single appointments to look at cars with buyers or sellers and then negotiate prices,” said Aung Min Moe, a 34-year-old car broker in Rangoon.
Now Internet users are discovering what’s been known in the West for a decade – shopping is quicker and more efficient online. Buyers and seller can give a quick look at the model they’re interested in, and get a rundown on its features and price, all in minutes: no more using the often shaky telephone service and driving across town only to find that the salesperson over-hyped the car.
Since September 2011, Burma has backed a program to substitute private-owned vehicles of more than four decades age with newer models. So far, the program has replaced about 55,000 vehicles.
According to the Department of Road Transport Administration, there are a total of 2.3 million registered motor vehicles, of which 279,066 are passenger cars while 64,888 are trucks, 20,944 buses, 1.9 million motorcycles and 59,665 others.
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