VietNamNet Bridge – Experiencing the difficult period in economic development, Vietnamese still spend billions of dollars on luxurious cars and smart phones.

Vietnam had imported 31,469 cars by the end of November, worth $643.88 million, an increase of 28.8 percent in quantity and 16.1 percent in value.

The two in the collection of luxurious cars owned by Nguyen Duc Thuy, who was the owner of Xuan Thanh Saigon Football Club.

More Rolls-Royce, Lexus in Vietnam

Vietnam has been importing cars from 20 countries and territories, including the US, UK, Germany and France, the suppliers of luxurious cars. From the four markets alone, 2,433 cars have been imported so far this year, worth more $90 million.

Vietnam has imported 13,094 cars so far this year from South Korea with the import turnover of $150.749 million.

Analysts have noted that more luxurious models have been used by Vietnamese. Though the car market sometimes got dreary in 2013 with the low sales of domestically assembled cars, the imports of luxurious cars still have been increasing steadily.

The sharp increase in the number of luxurious cars in Vietnam was the reason why the first authorized dealer of Rolls-Royce was opened in June 2013. By that time, some 70 Rolls-Royce had been imported.

Lexus, another luxurious car brand, also made its official presence in Vietnam in the first quarter of 2013.

$1 billion on mobile phones

The latest report of GFK, a market survey firm, showed that Vietnamese spend $1 billion to buy new mobile phones ever year. About 17 million mobile phones have been sold so far this year, including 7 million high end products.

The high growth rate of 156 percent of the Vietnamese smart phone market, the highest in South East Asia, is an attractive figure to any manufacturer.

Being a poor country, Vietnam has listed itself among the countries with the highest growth rate in telecommunication. Every Vietnamese possesses 1.4 mobile phones, a half of which is high end smart phones.

The noteworthy thing is that Vietnamese spend big money on luxurious products not because they need the products, but just because to show off their richness.

A survey on smartphone users in Asia Pacific conducted by Ericsson Consumerlab found that Vietnamese use smart phones for five basic purposes - making calls (99 percent), making messages (95 percent), surfing on Internet (68 percent), accessing to social networks (38 percent) and for other purposes (35 percent).

64 percent of Singaporeans use smart phones to access to social networks, 82 percent to surf on Internet, 75 percent to send emails and 70 percent install apps. Meanwhile, the figures are 38 percent, 68 percent, 25 percent and 35 percent, respectively, for Vietnam.

The figures showed that Vietnamese use hi-tech phones just to conduct the operations they can do with normal phones.

Commenting about the luxurious car imports, Dr. Nguyen Minh Phong said the import turnover increase in the context of the current difficulties showed that a part of the Vietnamese have not cut down expenses despite the economic recession.

He said the government needs to apply a more flexible taxation policy, under which a high tax need to be imposed on luxurious cars to restrict the imports.

Nam Phong