Vietnam's cheap cigarettes make it easier to smoke, harder to discourage the habit

An astray of cigarette butts. Photo by VnExpress/Thanh Nguyen

The average price of a cigarette pack in Vietnam is a third of the world’s and among the world’s lowest, a factor in the nation’s high smoking rate, experts say.

Dao The Son, an economist and instructor at the Vietnam Commercial University in Hanoi, said Wednesday that the price of cigarettes in Vietnam was roughly the same as in Cambodia and Laos, and much lower than in Singapore, Malaysia and other countries in the region.

"Cheap cigarettes make them more accessible and affordable for young and poor people in Vietnam," he said, adding that this was a main factor behind Vietnam’s high smoking rate.

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