Japan will consider providing ODA loans for a multi-billion-dollar international airport project in Long Thanh district, Dong Nai province.
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Japan will consider providing ODA loans for a multi-billion-dollar international airport project in Long Thanh district, Dong Nai province.
The official development assistance (ODA) plan was unveiled by Japanese Ambassador to Vietnam Fukada Hiroshi at a meeting with Minster of Transport Dinh La Thang in Hanoi on Tuesday, according to a post on the ministry’s website.
The ambassador said Japan wanted Vietnam to create favorable conditions for Japanese companies to take part in the project and enable the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) to study this project.
Minister Thang said the Long Thanh airport project had secured National Assembly (NA) approval but the ministry would have to do a feasibility study for the project and pass it to the legislature for consideration.
The airport could be developed under the public-private partnership (PPP) format. In a tentative financing scheme, the State budget would be used for site clearance, ODA loans for building runways and parking lots for aircraft, and private capital for constructing terminals.
Therefore, Japanese enterprises may have the opportunity to get involved in the project, according to the transport ministry.
At its session in Hanoi last month, the NA issued a resolution permitting the Government to go ahead with the project.
Long Thanh is expected to help ease overload at Vietnam’s current biggest international airport, Tan Son Nhat, in HCMC, and become an aviation hub in Asia. It is designed to handle up to 100 million passengers and five million tons of cargo after three phases of the project are completed by 2050.
The project will require a total of some VND336.6 trillion (over US$16 billion), with VND114.5 trillion to be spent in the first phase. In addition to the State budget and ODA loans, the Government also plans to raise funds the sale of State shares at equitized State-owned enterprises and from investors involved in construction of facilities under the PPP format.
The ministry expects the airport project could get off the ground in 2019 after the feasibility study is approved by the NA, Thang told a meeting in Hanoi earlier this month. The project’s first phase is scheduled to be up and running in 2023.
Thang said the ministry had proposed the Prime Minister pick ACV as the investor of Long Thanh, about 43 kilometers from Tan Son Nhat airport.
Airports Corporation of Vietnam (ACV) is preparing to select consultants for the feasibility study via an international competitive tender, and it will take 6-8 months to select consultants and 15-17 months to finish consultations on the project.
Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung introduced the airport project to the Japanese government and companies during his visit to Japan earlier this month for the 7th Mekong-Japan Summit, Thang said.
Thang said the Japanese side showed keen interest in the project and a high-speed railway plan in Vietnam as well.
At the meeting in Hanoi on Tuesday, the Japanese ambassador and the minister also touched on the north-south high-speed railway project.
Earlier, Prime Minister Dung and his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe agreed the two nations could cooperate in the railway project and conduct a feasibility study for it.
JICA is about to get involved in the feasibility study based on new plans mapped out by Vietnamese agencies.
According to the transport ministry, the high-speed railway is designed to travel at 160-200 kilometers per hour in the first phase and 350 kilometers per hour later.
(Source: SGT)
