A ministry of Public Works and Transport official said on Monday that the number of vehicles in Cambodia had increased by 300,000 to 400,000 in the last year, with the huge growth causing problems such as traffic congestion and pollution.

Chhoun Voun, the director-general of the ministry’s General Department of Land Transport, was speaking at an event in the capital’s Sen Sok district to publicise the modernisation of the vehicle registration and control system.

He said more than five million vehicles are currently registered on the automatically updated system – a year-on-year increase of between 300,000 and 400,000 vehicles, mostly motorbikes.

“Because of this rapid increase, there is more traffic congestion and pollution,” he said.

Joint research in 2015 between technical specialists from the Ministry of Public Works and Transport and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (Jica) identified three main factors that needed to be addressed – insufficient data on vehicle registration and transfer of ownership, limited vehicle inspection equipment, and a failure to update the vehicle registration process for 10 years.

“Modernising the vehicle registration and control system over three years since 2016 has improved the situation drastically,” Voun said.

At the event, Masaya Ota, the chief adviser to the 2015 project, called on people with unregistered vehicles or who had not transferred ownership, and those who had not tested their vehicles’ safety and roadworthiness, to promptly complete the necessary procedures before the ministry begins to impose statutory fines in the near future.

“Registering vehicles and transferring them officially, and ensuring their roadworthiness, is a major social responsibility. To ensure the security of yourself and your family, make sure your vehicle receives regular safety checks,” Ota said.

Yuichi Sugano, the chief representative of Jica’s Cambodian office said these issues are essential to everyone’s daily lives and urged people to participate in registering their vehicles properly, regularly checking their condition and carrying out maintenance at least once or twice a year.

“I hope all Cambodians will clearly understand the benefits of this project and join together to improve their social responsibility,” Sugano said.

Institute for Road Safety acting director Kong Ratanak said on Wednesday that proper registration and transfer of ownership in accordance with legal procedures was very important because it clearly identified car owners when their vehicles were stolen or were involved in road accidents.

But he said control of the technical characteristics of vehicles to reduce pollution is currently impossible in Cambodia because “law enforcement is still limited”.