People who are found to be drunk while driving would have their driving licences revoked permanently under a new proposal by the Ministry of Public Security, said a senior police officer.

Traffic police officers examine the blood alcohol content of a motorcyclist

Speaking at a press conference in Hanoi on June 26, Lieutenant General Luong Tam Quang, Chief of Office and spokesman of the Ministry of Public Security, said transport enterprises which employ people guilty of drink driving would have their business licences revoked, adding that the proposal would be submitted to the Government soon.

The move is aimed to enhance compliance with the Law on Alcohol Harm Prevention which was recently approved by the National Assembly, Quang said.

To put the regulation into practice, there must be cooperation from different agencies and the whole society, he said.

Alcohol is consumed in Vietnam at an alarmingly high rate and it has been increasing over the years, according to experts.

Data provided by the World Health Organisation Office in Vietnam showed that the country ranked third in Asia and 64th in the world with regard to beer and liquor consumption in 2016.

The average Vietnamese adult drank approximately 8.3 litres of pure alcohol or more than 470 bottles of beer a year.

Excessive alcohol consumption resulted in 79,000 deaths and hundreds of thousands of people hospitalised for the treatment of alcohol-related diseases including stroke and hypertension in 2016 alone.

The latest statistics from the National Committee for Traffic Safety revealed that 15,000 people die every year due to traffic accidents in Vietnam, of which 4,800 cases are related to drunkenness.