The interior ministry of Vietnam has claimed that more than 90 per cent of the drivers transporting workers to garment and textile factories do not have licenses. The revelation came yesterday at the end of the annual meeting of the Public Works and Transport Ministry.

The country’s interior minister Sar Kheng listed a slew of figures related to the kingdom’s traffic situation at the closing ceremony at the Chaktomuk Conference Hall in Phnom Penh. He went on to add that more than 40 per cent of traffic accidents involving garment workers were caused by speeding. Many of the trucks are also seen carrying too many passengers that makes the vehicles harder to control at high speeds, he added.

According to the interior ministry, most drivers of tourist buses did have licenses but often broke road laws by driving under the influence of drugs and alcohol. The minister informed that in 2017 his ministry would review and solve this particular issue and the overloaded truck problem will also be eliminated.

The minister urged the Public Works and Transport Ministry to continue checking vehicles for technical problems, reduce traffic congestion and traffic accidents, check the technical construction of roads and bridges and make sure everything was up to standard. The revelations come after a series of amendments to the Traffic Law were passed this week. Many of the amendments reduced penalties and softened punishment for a variety of traffic crimes while scrapping the requirement for a license to operate certain kinds of motorbikes.

However, the National Social Security Fund (NSSF) disputed Kheng’s statistics saying that there are 4,000 drivers transporting garment workers throughout the country every day and so far 78 per cent of the drivers have a driver’s license. For the remaining 22 per cent, the ministry would continue to provide examinations to issue driving licenses for them to be completed in the first quarter of 2017.