HCMC – The HCMC government has approved a one-year pilot scheme for using public buses in the city as a medium for advertising after many years of debate.
Just a certain number of commuter buses can be used by advertisers to reach customers through their messages, thus generating a fresh stream of revenue and subsequently reducing the city’s huge subsidies for buses.
Buses on the 10 subsidized routes have been chosen to carry out the scheme which is expected to generate total revenue of around VND9.8 billion according to a HCMC Department of Transport report sent to the Economic and Budgetary Committee of the People’s Council of the city in March this year.
The department calculated the city would earn total annual revenue of VND170 billion, exclusive of taxes from bus advertisements, if the scheme is applicable to all over 2,344 buses in operation in the city.
The city government spends more than a thousand billion Vietnam dong a year subsidizing bus fares. Bus subsidies swelled from VND1.36 trillion (nearly US$60.9 million) in 2011 to VND1.4 trillion in 2012 and VND1.47 trillion in 2013.
Despite increasing subsidies, commuter buses have attracted fewer passengers as the number in 2014 was down 4.7% year-on-year to 593 million.
The number of bus commuters continued to shrink in January-June this year, with 271 million using public transportation service, down 6.1% year-on-year.
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