The scene of an accident which resulted in the death of a sanitation worker who was busy clearing rubbish off of Láng Street in Hà Nội’s Đống Đa District in April this year. — Photo vov.vn

HÀ NỘI — People who are found to be drunk while driving would have their driving licence revoked permanently under a new proposal by the Ministry of Public Security, said Lieutenant General Lương Tam Quang, Chief of Office and the ministry's spokesman.

Speaking at a press conference on Wednesday in Hà Nội, he said transport enterprises the employ people guilty of drink driving would have their business licences revoked, adding that the proposal would be submitted to the Government soon.

The move is aimed to enhance compliance with the Law on Alcohol Harm Prevention which was recently approved by the National Assembly, Quang said.

To put the regulation into practice, there must be co-operation from different agencies and the whole society, he said.

Alcohol is consumed in Việt Nam at an alarmingly high rate and it has been increasing over the years, according to experts.

Data provided by the World Health Organisation Office in Việt Nam showed that the country ranked third in Asia and 64th in the world with regard to beer and liquor consumption in 2016.

The average Vietnamese adult drank approximately 8.3 litres of pure alcohol or more than 470 bottles of beer a year.

Excessive alcohol consumption resulted in 79,000 deaths and hundreds of thousands of hospitalisations for the treatment of alcohol-related diseases including stroke and hypertension in 2016 alone, said Kidong Park, the World Health Organisation Representative in Việt Nam.

The latest statistics from the National Traffic Safety Committee revealed that 15,000 people die every year due to traffic accidents in Việt Nam, of which 4,800 cases are related to drunkenness. — VNS