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Bus plan may save Gov’t millions
HCM City annually spends hundreds of billions of dong subsidising local buses, but many operators have a plan to save all this money.
Allowing bus businesses to use the sides of buses for advertisements would also help lower the subsidy budget, but this has been banned in HCM City since 2002.
They would prefer not to claim it and, instead, tap into their own business potential and be given permission to allow advertisements on buses and to permit the development of a limited number of commercial buildings on bus-depot sites.
Most bus operators are unsatisfied with the current subsidy policy, which is based on things such as fuel cost and the numbers of workers and passengers.
Permission for three
The city currently has 31 bus businesses, but only three of them have been given permission to commercially develop part of them. In these three cases, car parks have been built.
Some of the other 28 operators said local authorities should also allow them to take advantage of their land to do more business.
Phung Dang Hai, head of the Quyet Thang bus co-operative, said if his co-operative was given approval, it would build multi-storeyed car parks to replace the subsidy.
"Our co-operative used to manage a 2,800-sq.m car park in Tan Binh District, but the land is now under the management of the Sai Gon Public Transport Management Centre. We are now just allowed to park buses here without doing any other business," he said.
At an international workshop on urban traffic in HCM City in November, many foreign delegates said bus businesses in their countries were allowed to do business to save government subsidies.
Allowing bus businesses to use the sides of buses for advertisements would also help lower the subsidy budget, but this has been banned in HCM City since 2002.
According to the municipal transport department, advertisements could earn the city VND100 billion (US$5.9 million) a year to help make up for bus subsidy.
The department has worked with ministries and agencies to build an advertisement master plan for buses. However, it is yet to get approval from the municipal People’s Committee.
According to Do Kim Dung, head of the Advertising Research and Training Institute of Viet Nam, advertisements on buses can easily cause accidents as riders often turn their heads around to see them.
In 2002, the city spent nearly VND40 billion ($2.3 million) on subsidies. This is expected to rise to more than VND600 billion this year.
Viet Nam News
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