Cao Sỹ Kiêm. — Photo dantri.com.vn

Cao Sỹ Kiêm, former Director General of the Việt Nam State Bank, talks to the newspaper Kinh tế & Đô thị about the proposal to require all car drivers to open their bank accounts in order to pay traffic fines if they are found to have violated traffic regulations through a traffic camera

Do you have any comments on the Ministry of Transport’s proposal?

The first thing I should say that this is a good idea if it becomes a reality. The most visible benefit is that when car owners have their bank accounts linked to their other documents, fines levied for their traffic violations will be a lot easier for the authorities to collect. When the bank receives a notification from a functional agency which is charged with collecting the traffic fine, the bank will then automatically deduct the fine from the bank account and then transfer the money to the State budget.

This method will save time for the traffic violator because they won’t have to go to the bank to withdraw their money to pay for their traffic fine. But in my opinion, it is not easy at all to bring this idea to life.

What are the challenges?

To turn this idea into life, we need to have a closer look at the following two conditions; They are as follows.

First, the car owner must open his/her current account in a bank

Second, after opening their bank account, will he/she be able to withdraw the interest rate from their account or just leave it as it is in their bank account? This is a question we need to find an answer.

We all agree that the main objective of opening such a bank account is to pay for any future traffic violation committed by the car owner. But there is a question I just want to raise here. Will this bank account be treated as a normal current bank account or any special bank account? This issue must be stated clearly right from the beginning as it relates to the bank account’s interest rate.

In your opinion what policies should go together with this proposal if the proposal is approved?

Of course, in my opinion, concerned agencies should sit together and discuss in detail what activities should be done.

However, in my opinion, at the beginning we should launch a pilot program in some localities and then draw lessons learned before applying it nation wide.

Many countries have already done this for many years. Why don’t we learn from their experiences and then apply it in our country?

In developed countries, I should say, they have applied this method for many years now. A key reason for their success is that they have a very good legal system. The co-ordination among government agencies, including law enforcement agencies is very good. Meanwhile in our country, we still have to learn quite a lot from them, particularly in the co-ordination between public agencies for the benefits of the people and the society. Upholding the law is the responsibility of all Vietnamese citizens.—VNS