Prime Minister Hun Sen’s call to legalize right-hand-drive cars will spell trouble for ailing businesses that specialize in switching steering columns from the right to the left side of dashboards, company owners said Tuesday.
“We are close to the end of our businesses,” said Te Tang Por, owner of STP International Public Company.
The prime minister called on Friday for the legalization of right-hand-drive cars if owners paid import duties on them, but added that no further imports would be allowed.
Roughly 10 percent of Cambodia’s 145,000 cars are right-hand-drive, according to the transportation ministry.
“I don’t know what to do or say,” Te Tang Por said. “My company will close its doors.”
He said that since 1999 his company and three others in Phnom Penh had together converted 1,500 vehicles for between $1,000 and $3,000 each.
“So far we hadn’t made a profit but we continued operating in the hopes that the government would one day force drivers to make the change,” he said.
Recently there had been fewer and fewer customers, Te Tang Por said, and two other steering conversion businesses he knew were also in trouble. Lean Thong, managing director of Lean Thong Investment, said the proposed legalization was hurting him, but that he wasn’t giving up the conversion business yet.
“I will continue to operate until no more customers come,” he said. “Before the new order, we had a few every day but none today.”
Leng Thun Yuthea, transport director-general at the Ministry of Public Works and Transportation, defended the proposed legalization. Without it, the state couldn’t collect taxes, he said.
Ny Cheth, a Phnom Penh auto dealer, also welcomed the legalization, saying it had allowed him to raise the sales price of right-hand-drive cars by at least $500.
Though 25 percent of all car accidents in Cambodia involved right-hand-drive cars in 2005, according to Handicap International, Ny Cheth said steering wheels were not responsible.
“Accidents depend on the driver. If they’re careful, there’s no accident,” he said.
