CAR imports will be banned temporarily this year in a bid to improve road safety
and "social order" and reduce smuggling.
Chea Peng Chheang, the
Under-Secretary of State for Finance, said the indefinite ban would begin on
March 1. "We do not want cars to be imported without checking their quality," he
said.
More than 90 per cent of the estimated 20,000 cars in Cambodia are
second-hand, and the government is concerned many are not of an adequate safety
standard. Chheang also said the government was moving to stop the influx of cars
smuggled into Cambodia from Thailand.
The government had banned the
import of right-hand steering vehicles, as are driven in Thailand. But car
industry sources say the vehicles are still flowing into Cambodia.
One
told the Post that car importers temporarily attached cars' steering wheels to
the left-hand side, and switched them back after passing through
Customs.
Often Customs officials knew what was happening but, upon
payment of a bribe, did not care, he said.
