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The price of cigarettes in Australia is sky-high because they are taxed so high. To buy a pack of cigarettes for 25 Australian dollars ($16.82), you have to pay tax up to 18 Australian dollars. The price of a pack of cheap cigarettes in Thailand is 89 baht ($2.59). A pack of cigarettes in Vietnam cost VND6,000-20,000 ($0.25-0.85). At my office in Vietnam, there is a gathering place for smoking. Many of the smokers are young men in their 20s.

The prevalence of e-cigarette use among Vietnamese teens has increased in recent years as among 13-15 year olds [...]
The Ministry of Health noted a concerning uptake of e-cigarettes, particularly among adolescents and young adults with about seven in 100 aged between 15 and 24 using e-cigarettes.

Despite a slight reduction of people who smoked tobacco in 2022, down 0.8 percent from 2015, Vietnam is ranked third among South-East Asian countries with the highest smoking prevalence, only after Indonesia and the Philippines, according to the Ministry of Health.

In Vietnam, the Government holds a monopoly on the importation of cigarettes and cigars, except import for sales as duty-free goods. The market size remains stable with over 100 billions cigarettes per year since 2015, in which around 60% is Vietnamese products, around 22% is foreign products made in Vietnam and 18% is illegally imported products. As of 2018, the cigarettes and cigars industry has contributed USD 450 millions to the State budget

There are currently 16 Vietnamese cigarette manufacturers with Vietnam National Tobacco Corporation (Vinataba) being a prominent unit in the production, distribution and trading scene. [...]

Vietnam has seen certain achievements made in tobacco harm prevention and control but challenges continue to emerge, including the increasing trend of smoking e-cigarettes, Associate Professor and Dr Luong Ngoc Khue has said. A decline has been recorded in smoking in public places like schools, offices, and public transport; a behaviour subject to increasing objections from the community. Smoking is now almost never seen at meetings, weddings, or funerals.

Hanoi (VNS/VNA) - Vietnam should not legalise the use of electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) and heated-tobacco-products (HTPs) immediately but conduct a pilot phase allowing the production, import and trading of this new-generation cigarettes in the country, officials have said.

Representatives from various agencies of the Government were speaking at a workshop on the legal framework for new-generation cigarettes in Vietnam, [...]

The representatives said e-cigarettes and HTPs were the result of the global application of technology and still very new to Vietnam's tobacco industry and regulators.

The Ministry of Health has called for a crackdown on illegal new modern cigarettes advertising and trading via e-commerce and social networks.

The ministry recommended the ministries of Public Security, Culture, Sports and Tourism and Information and Communications, as well as the General Department of Customs strengthen inspections into the products.

Tran Thi Trang, Deputy Director of the Legal Affairs Department, at the Ministry of Health, has said the new cigarettes are products that cannot be advertised, imported or traded in Vietnam.

Speaking at a seminar on new-generation tobacco regulations held by Vietnam’s Ministry of Health, Nguyen Tuan Lam, a representative of the World Health Organization (WHO) in Vietnam, inaccurately stated that e-cigarettes are encouraging teens to start smoking. Lam cited a study which allegedly found that the number of teens who vaped before switching to smoking had more than tripled. Interestingly the vast majority of scientific research indicates the exact opposite, but sadly the WHO remains set on its rigid nonsensical stance. [...]

Speaking at the seminar on new-generation tobacco management policy held by the Ministry of Health on March 5, Nguyen Tuan Lam, a representative of the World Health Organization (WHO) in Vietnam, said that electronic cigarettes, instead of acting as a tool to help smokers wean off combustible cigarettes, were encouraging youths to start smoking. Tran Thi Trang, deputy head of the Ministry of Health’s Legal Department, said that the department will propose the Government impose a ban on the sale, production and import of electronic cigarettes and heated tobacco products.

Smoking now claims over 100 lives in Vietnam every day and the number is expected to nearly double in 2030.

According to the Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS), conducted by the ministry and the General Statistics Office in 2015, 53.5 per cent of non-smokers, equal to 28.5 million of adults were exposed to tobacco smoke at home, and 36.8 per cent of non-smokers, who worked indoors, equal to 5.9 million of adult, were exposed to tobacco smoke at the workplace.