HANOI, March 6 (Xinhua) -- Lifan 520, a four-seat car model of the Chinese Lifan group, was launched here Tuesday with a price tag of over 16,000 U.S. dollars, becoming the first Chinese sedan assembled in Vietnam.

    "The introduction of Lifan 520 with reasonable price and high quality is Lifan's breakthrough in Vietnam and a great choice of consumers, especially taxi firms and mid-income earners," Do Van Binh, chairman of the management board of the Bao Toan Automobile Company, Vietnamese distributor of the Lifan group, said at the launching ceremony.

    With Vietnam's accession to the World Trade Organization and appearance of more mid-income earners in the country, Lifan 520 will sell well in the Vietnamese market and then other markets, especially in the Southeast Asian countries, he said, stating that "according to our survey and analysis, we can sell 2,000 Lifan 520cars in 2007."

    At the launching ceremony, Thang Long, a Vietnamese taxi firm, signed with Bao Toan a contract on buying 100 Lifan 520 cars.

    "We hope that more models of Chinese cars with reasonable price and high quality will be assembled in Vietnam in the future," Le Thanh Mai, vice director general of Vietnam Motors, the automobile joint venture in the country in charge of assembling Lifan 520, said at the ceremony, noting that the model meets international quality standards.

    Vietnam turned out 6,599 automobiles in the first two months of this year, a year-on-year surge of 36.8 percent, according to the country's General Statistics Office. Meanwhile, it spent 74 million dollars importing automobiles, components and spare parts, down 6.7 percent.

    Vietnam currently houses 13 automobile joint ventures between foreign firms and local ones with total registered capital of nearly 700 million dollars and combined annual capacity of 173,000 units. Besides, it has dozens of local enterprises specializing in producing automobile parts and assembling simple vehicles.

    Early last year, Vietnam with a population of more than 83 million, had some 700,000 private-owned cars compared with 17 million motorbikes, according to statistics from the country's Transport Ministry.