Vietnam approves construction of Long Thanh airport project
Vietnam's National Assembly (NA) has approved the Government's investment plan for the development of the Long Thanh Airport though a public - private partnership (PPP) project.
During the session there were 428 of 461 NA deputies present that voted in favor of the project. The decision from the legislative body allows the Government to proceed with the multi-billion-dollar international airport project.
The new facilities aims to alleviate traffic congestion at Ho Chi Minh City's Tan Son Nhat Airport. The Long Thanh Airport, which is expected to become an important international airport for the country and an aviation hub in the region, is designed to have capacity for 100 million passengers and five million tonnes of cargo after three phases of the project are completed in 2050.
The new facilities are expected to have one runway and one terminal able to handle 25 million passengers and 1.2 million tons of cargo a year in phase one, which is expected to be operational by 2025.
The total project investment is estimated at VND336.6 trillion (US$15.4 billion).
Vietnam's Ministry of Transportation (MoT) reported that the first phase of the international airport would require VND109.97 trillion (US$4.76 billion), with the State budget accounting for VND12.15 trillion (11.1%), ODA loans VND29.18 trillion (26.5%) and other sources VND68.64 trillion (62.4%).
Several investors have shown interest in the PPP airport project including Aéroports de Paris, Samsung, South Korea's Incheon Airport and a group of Japanese corporations.
The proposed airport is located 40 km northeast of Ho Chi Minh City's Tan Son Nhat Airport. With around 20 million passengers each year, Tan Son Nhat is currently Vietnam's largest airport and is expected to exceed its capacity of 25 million passengers some time after 2017.
In 2015 we have reported about several PPP projects in Vietnam:
