Yangon, Myanmar, Myanmar car market:
if you love cars and read the car journal in Myanmar, you are bound to have witness car racing events in Yangon. Although illegal, these races on the main streets of Yangon are still taking place. Even though this is a common event in Yangon for a few years now, more information about this is surfacing. This is attributed in part to the growing car importing trend in Myanmar and the overgrowing Myanmar car market.
Some taxi drivers and eye witnesses told the government newspaper that there are car races on streets when heavy traffic is subsided, especially at night time. Due to the high speed, there have been some car accidents, reported the government newspaper in Yangon.
“They are not doing these races spontaneously; I think they had planned for the time and place. Not only at midnight, but also in the late evening; sometimes they are racing at about 9 or 10 PM. Most of them are sport cars usually driven very fast. Sometimes, even taxis are included. Taxis usually wait for the passenger at the highway bus terminal which is located at the suburb of Yangon, at the early morning at about 4 AM. When they have passengers, they drive at high speed so that they can queue again at the highway bus terminal before sun rise.” One witness told the government Myanmar newspaper, The Mirror.
In the report from The Mirror, one taxi driver told that, “It is very dangerous for the citizens who are using main roads, especially individuals that are walking. I think they will not take any responsibility when accident happens. Surely they will drive away. Government should give special attention to these matters and they should take action upon those night time high speed drivers.”
Government newspaper also reported that those illegal racers totally neglect the traffic lights. So, drivers that have the right of way usually get into trouble and encountered some accidents even though they had the right way. “Those cars are speeding very fast, so fast that I could not even read its license plates with my own eyes. I saw some on the Ka Ba Aye Pagoda road, near Sedona Hotel. It could be a threat to the foreigners who come to visit our country”, told by one of the resident who lives near Sedona Hotel.
As car importing becomes more common in Myanmar, car prices on the Myanmar car market are decreasing. Young people are more and more interested in sports cars. Having witness this, Myanmar government raised up the import tax for sports cars recently thereby making the Myanmar car CIF price higher. Although this is a start, the Myanmar car market is seen rapid changes so more policies are needed in order to keep racing in check.
