Vietnamese lawmakers showed major support for a plan to build a multibillion-dollar airport only 50km away from Tan Son Nhat International Airport in Ho Chi Minh City during a lawmaking National Assembly discussion on Thursday.
The Ministry of Transport, which is selling the plan to build Long Thanh International Airport, as assigned by the government, could breathe a sigh of relief after seeing the project largely backed by lawmakers, who yesterday said it must be carried out as soon as possible.
The proposed airport is expected to be located in the eponymous district in the southern province of Dong Nai, around 50km from Ho Chi Minh City, home to Tan Son Nhat, the country’s largest airport.
Tran Ngoc Vinh, a deputy who represents the northern city of Hai Phong, said he totally supports the policy of building Long Thanh airport because Vietnam “needs to have a modern, international-level airport soon.”
“We will miss a golden chance unless we start the project soon,” he underlined.
The transport ministry said last year the airport was expected to cost US$18.7 billion, but Minister Dinh La Thang told lawmakers on May 29 this year that a new calculation has reduced the estimate to only $15.8 billion.
The first phase of construction is estimated to consume $5.2 billion, instead of $7.8 billion as previously calculated.
The new investment estimates were included in a report delivered to lawmakers the same day.
Thang said it is “essential and urgent” for a new airport to be built as Tan Son Nhat is expected to exceed its threshold of serving 25 million passengers a year in 2017, which has indeed convinced some lawmakers.
“Ho Chi Minh City supports investment in Long Thanh airport to ease pressure on Tan Son Nhat,” said Tran Du Lich, who represents the southern metropolis.
Lich and many other parliamentarians said their statements represent the consensus of voters in their localities, not their personal view.
“With a capacity of only 25 million passengers a year, Tan Son Nhat will become overloaded in the very near future, which will then affect not only Ho Chi Minh City but also the entire key economic zone in the south,” Lich said.
The economic zone consists of Ho Chi Minh City and seven provinces, including Ba Ria – Vung Tau, Dong Nai, Binh Duong, Binh Phuoc, Tay Ninh, Long An, and Tien Giang.
The zone accounted for 42 percent of the country’s GDP and nearly 60 percent of the state budget, according to 2012 data released by the Vietnam Trade Promotion Agency.
The transport ministry said in its plan that Long Thanh airport will also serve as an international transit hub, a future Lich said should be decided by the next National Assembly terms. Vietnam’s legislative body is in its 13th term between 2011 and 2016.
“Let the issue be discussed by the 15th or 16th National Assembly,” he said. “We should only focus on completing the first phase of the project in this 13th term, so as to have a new airport to share the burden with Tan Son Nhat in the next five to seven years.”
Tran Hoang Ngan, a popular economic expert and a Ho Chi Minh City legislator, also said the 13th National Assembly should only handle the first phase of the project.
The headline-grabbing proposed airport is expected to be able to handle 100 million passengers a year and function as an international transit hub by its last phase ending in 2030.
The respective capital needed for the last two phases were $3.8 billion and $7 billion in the old report, but the transport ministry last week did not elaborate on the new estimates for these stages.
For Nguyen Ngoc Phuong, a legislator from the central province of Quang Binh, it will be too late to start work on Long Thanh airport in 2018, and have it completed in 2025, as proposed.
“Tan Son Nhat airport will be overloaded in 2017 so the new airport must be constructed soon, even as early as 2016,” he urged.
Still, there are also concerns over the project, according to some lawmakers.
The transport ministry claimed in its latest investment report that the Long Thanh project has an internal rate of return, or the rate of growth a project is projected to generate, as high as 24.5 percent, a figure Ngan, the economic pundit, doubted.
“The average internal rate of return in Vietnam is currently only between 10 and 12 percent, so is the 24.5 percent a piece of ‘polished data’?” he wondered, implying that the figure has been over-optimistically set.
Ngan, however, agreed with the transport ministry that the airport will contribute to the socio-economic and tourism development of the southern region.
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