Hanoi - Italy's Piaggio plans to invest 30 million dollars in a factory in northern Vietnam to produce Vespa scooters, local media said Monday. The People's Committee of Vinh Phuc province, 60 kilometres north of Hanoi, is scheduled to grant an investment license on Tuesday to Piaggio to build a factory in the province, said Thanh Nien newspaper.
The factory is expected to start production in late 2009 and will be capable of producing 50,000 Vespa scooters a year, the newspaper reported.
Motorbikes are the primary means of transportation for most Vietnamese families. In a country of 85 million people there are an estimated 21 million motorbikes.
Motorbike manufacturers in Vietnam, including Honda, Yamaha and Suzuki, produced 1.95 million motorbikes in the first eight months of this year, up 28 per cent against the same period last year, according to government statistics.
