World Bank helps Vietnam to set up National Road Safety Observatory

The report is part of a strategic partnership programme between the Australian Government and the WB on a series of analytical reports on Vietnam's transport industry.

According to the report, the WB has been assisting the Government of Vietnam, through the National Traffic Safety Committee (NTSC), in improving its road accident data system, establish a NRSO and update the National Road Safety Strategy and Action Plan for Vietnam.

With financial support from the WB during the 2005-2012 period, a National Road Traffic Accident Database System (NRADS) has been developed, which includes data from 63 provinces and cities across the country, managed by the Traffic Police Department under the Ministry of Public Security.

The report's findings highlighted the need to strengthen state management and restructure road traffic safety data systems.

Despite many efforts has been paid, thousands of deaths are recorded every year due to road traffic accidents, it said.

According to the Traffic Police Department, in the first six months of the year, there were 6,340 traffic accidents nationwide which killed 3,192 people and injured 4,475 others. Most of the accidents occurred on roads with 6,278 cases resulting in 3,147 deaths and 4,465 injuries.

To improve the situation, the WB recommended that Vietnam establish a specialised agency to manage road traffic safety and build a comprehensive database on road safety. 

According to the WB, the development of a database on traffic accidents by the Ministry of Public Security is a great step forward, but it needs to be integrated with the road database of the Ministry of Transport. 

It is necessary for the Ministry of Health to build a database on traffic accident injuries, which is linked to the above databases.

The WB estimates that it takes four years with a budget of nearly 2 million USD to build and put into operation the NRSO and the National Road Traffic Safety Portal./.