HÀ NỘI – Việt Nam loses 2.5 per cent of its gross domestic product (GDP) annually due to traffic accidents.

Khuất Việt Hùng, standing deputy chairman of the National Traffic Safety Committee, made these observations while speaking at the signing ceremony for co-operation between the National Traffic Safety Committee and the Vietnam Association of Motorcycle Manufacturers on Thursday.

By comparison the country’s growth was more than 6 per cent of the GDP last year.

The problem of traffic accidents in the country remain complicated, according to the official.

On an average, 24 people die in road accidents and 60 people are injured every day.

Traffic accidents are a serious global problem and a great challenge for the governments of different countries around the world, including Việt Nam.

Statistics from the World Health Organisation (WHO) show that every year, traffic accidents killed 1.25 million worldwide and injured another 50 million.

WHO has recommended that if countries did not have drastic measures in place, by 2020 as many as 1.9 million people would die every year in traffic accidents, and millions others would be injured.

At present, thanks to co-operation of the Party, the Government and concerned ministries, traffic accidents in Việt Nam had decreased, Hùng said.

From 2011 to 2015, the number of deaths decreased by more than 12,500, as compared to the 2006-10 period.

In the first seven months this year, the country saw 11,852 traffic accidents, which killed 5,023 people and injured 10,286 others. This was a drop of 1,058 cases, 144 deaths and 1,360 injured, as compared to the same period last year. – VNS