HO CHI MINH CITY, Feb. 26 (Xinhua) -- Surveillance cameras will be installed on a trial basis in Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi by 2020 and nationwide by 2022 to monitor traffic violations, help ease reduce traffic jams and traffic accidents, local media reported Tuesday.

The Vietnamese government asked the Ministry of Public Security to set up plans to install the cameras and establish traffic control centers to connect and share data from cameras, daily newspaper Vietnam News reported.

Ho Chi Minh City has already installed many cameras to monitor traffic as part of a master plan to develop it into a smart city by 2020.

In 2018, Vietnam witnessed 18,232 traffic accidents which killed 8,125 people, seriously injured 5,124 people and slightly wounded 9,070 others, posting year-on-year decline of 9.2 percent, 1.9 percent, 8.3 percent and 20.8 percent, respectively, according to the country's Traffic Police Department.