Ministry supports Binh Dinh province to invest in second runway of Phu Cat airport

Reporting to the Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha, the Ministry of Transport expressed its support for assigning the People's Committee of Binh Dinh province to organize the investment in the second runway of Phu Cat airport.

Phu Cat Airport currently has a designed capacity of 2.5 million passengers/year - Photo: LAM THIEN

The above viewpoint was given by the leader of the Ministry of Transport, after implementing the direction of Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha on consulting with relevant ministries on assigning the People's Committee of Binh Dinh province as the investor of the project to build the second runway of Phu Cat airport.

The Ministry of Transport said it has developed two investment plans to build a second runway at Phu Cat airport:

Option 1: Vietnam Airports Corporation (ACV), currently the Phu Cat airport enterprise, is responsible for investing in the construction of the second runway according to the approved plan.

However, ACV reported that it is currently focusing its capital on investing in major, key aviation projects such as Long Thanh airport, Tan Son Nhat T3 terminal, expanding Noi Bai T2 terminal and investing in upgrading other airports. Therefore, ACV has not been able to balance its capital to implement the project of building a second runway at Phu Cat airport during this period.

Option 2 - Direct State investment: with this option, the law on civil aviation does not specifically stipulate the investment responsibility of the central budget or local budget.

In case the Ministry of Transport invests in the second runway of Phu Cat airport, the ministry will not be able to balance capital to invest in the project at this stage. Because the medium-term public investment plan for the period 2021-2025, the central budget allocated to the ministry is focused on prioritizing the development of key national transport projects.

In case the People's Committee of Binh Dinh province invests in the second runway of Phu Cat airport: according to the report, the People's Committee of Binh Dinh province is ready to allocate about 1,513 billion VND (of which about 1,008 billion VND is for site clearance) to invest in the project right at this stage.

Regarding the proposal to support about 1,500 billion VND from the central budget, the Ministry of Planning and Investment said that currently, the competent authority has not yet issued principles, criteria, norms and announced the total expected public investment capital, so there is no basis for considering and reporting to the competent authority to support a part of the construction investment costs for the People's Committee of Binh Dinh province to carry out the investment.

However, in case the project is approved by the competent authority for investment policy in the period 2021-2025 and the implementation period is extended to the period 2026-2030, capital will continue to be allocated according to the provisions of the Law on Public Investment (transitional projects in the list of the medium-term public investment plan of the previous period).

The Ministry of Finance said that the revised State Budget Law is currently being submitted to the National Assembly for consideration in the direction of allowing the use of development investment capital from local budgets for investment projects to build infrastructure works from higher-level budgets in the locality.

Therefore, the use of local budget by the People's Committee of Binh Dinh province is implemented according to regulations after the Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of 7 laws under the state management function of the Ministry of Finance was passed by the National Assembly.

Through the opinions of the ministries and in the context that the Ministry of Transport and ACV cannot balance capital for immediate investment in the 2021-2025 period, the Ministry of Transport supports the assignment of the People's Committee of Binh Dinh province to organize the investment in the construction of the second runway and other works in the airport area of ​​Phu Cat airport, due to the need to have this runway soon.

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/bo-ung-ho-tinh-binh-dinh-dau-tu-duong-bang-thu-hai-cua-san-bay-phu-cat-20241113171429569.htm