Ministry of Transport responds to proposal to invest in Thanh Son airport under PPP form

In order to soon put Thanh Son airport into dual-use operation, recently, the People's Committee of Ninh Thuan province proposed that the Ministry of Transport soon agree to supplement the master plan of the national airport for the period 2021-2030 for the Prime Minister to approve, in which Thanh Son airport is planned to become a dual-use airport.

In addition, the locality proposed to supplement the orientation for the period 2030 to 2050 to develop Thanh Son airport into an international port. The Government's staff has a separate mechanism for exploiting shared infrastructure (runways) in the dual-use exploitation of civil and military airports.

"Because currently, there are no regulations on the use of public assets in the cooperation of exploiting dual-use airport infrastructure between the State and the private sector" - Ninh Thuan Provincial People's Committee explained.

In addition, the People's Committee of Ninh Thuan province also requested the Ministry of Transport to report to the Prime Minister for consideration and approval for this locality to be the competent authority to prepare the Thanh Son airport development project and prepare a pre-feasibility study report for the Thanh Son airport investment project under the public-private partnership (PPP) form and submit it to the competent authority for approval.

Regarding this proposal, the Ministry of Transport said that in the submission to the Prime Minister on the master plan for the development of the national airport system, it proposed to add Thanh Son airport to the planning as a domestic port.

Accordingly, Thanh Son airport has a capacity of 1.5 million passengers per year and can operate irregular international flights. Orientation for the period 2030 to 2050, the airport's capacity will be increased to 3 million passengers/year.

In case there is a need to stably operate regular international flights, the province is requested to coordinate with the Ministry of Transport to report to the competent authority for permission to convert into an international airport.

Regarding the specific mechanism related to the exploitation of shared infrastructure (runways) in dual-use exploitation, the Ministry of Transport is finalizing a project to orientate the mobilization of social capital to invest in airport infrastructure to report to the Politburo, expected in July. Accordingly, it has summarized a number of difficulties and problems related to the plan to use infrastructure assets in dual-use exploitation.

Based on the opinions of the Politburo, the Ministry of Transport reports to the Government for approval of the project and implementation when relevant legal regulations are reviewed, amended and supplemented.

With the proposal to approve the province as the competent authority to develop the Thanh Son airport project, the Ministry of Transport said that after the airport system planning is approved by the Prime Minister, it is recommended that Ninh Thuan province closely coordinate with the Ministry of Transport to organize the development and approval of the Thanh Son airport planning as a basis for studying the investment plan to develop the port under the PPP method.

Ngo Huyen - Tuyet Mai

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