Vietnam's imported completed built up (CBU) automobile turnover is likely to hit 709 million U.S. dollars in 2013, up 15.2 percent year-on-year, according to Vietnam's General Statistics Office (GSO) on Tuesday.

The country is expected to import nearly 34,500 CBUs in 2013, posting a year-on-year increase of 25.9 percent, said GSO.

In December alone, Vietnam spent 65 million U.S. dollars in importing 3,000 CBUs, the same value and volume against the previous month.

In a gloomy market of domestic assembly automobiles, the increase in CBUs imports in 2013 presents a good signal to the country's automobile market, bringing more choices for Vietnamese consumers as well as more competitiveness for the country's domestic automobile production industry, assessed GSO.

Vietnam's imported automobile sector can be more promising in 2014 due to increasing purchasing power of local people and the rapid tariff reduction schedule in Vietnam, said GSO.

From Jan. 1, 2014, in implementing the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Trade in Goods Agreement (ATIGA) during the 2012-2014 period, preferential import tariffs for automobiles into Vietnam will be reduced from 60 percent to 50 percent, said Vietnam's Ministry of Finance.