Vietnam spent around 4.4 billion U.S. dollars on importing completely-built automobiles and components for assembly in the first half of this year, posting a year-on-year decrease of 1.7 percent.Specifically, the country imported 65,836 completely-built automobiles worth more than 1.6 billion U.S. dollars in the period, down 18.8 percent in volume and 11.1 percent in value, according to the Ministry of Industry and Trade on Wednesday.

Last year, Vietnam spent nearly 8.7 billion U.S. dollars importing automobiles and components for assembly, up 36.2 percent against 2020, according to the General Statistics Office. ■