Vietnam's dominant foreign car assembler, Toyota Motor Corp, said on Friday it had received licences to set up two auto-part plants with a combined investment of $52.78 million.
The plants, to be built in the northern port city of Hai Phong, will produce airbags for export, said an official from the company in Hanoi.
Toyota, which accounted for more than one-fourth of all car sales of the 11 foreign car makers in Vietnam during the first eight months of this year, had forecast a 25 percent drop in its car sales in 2004 due to higher taxes.
The firm's sales during the January-August period fell nearly 18 percent to 1,277 units.
However, car dealers expect sales to pick up between now and the end of the year as buyers rush to beat a state plan to raise special consumption tax rates to 40 percent from January 2005 from 24 percent this year.