The road to development is more open

From 0:01 on December 2, Dien Bien Airport officially reopened and resumed operations after a long period of upgrading and expanding. From a small airport, only suitable for small aircraft and limited capacity, Dien Bien Airport has now expanded its runway to 2,400m long and 45m wide, meeting technical standards for Airbus A321, A320 and similar aircraft.

Flight from Hanoi to Dien Bien in just 1 hour

The safe operation of large aircraft at Dien Bien airport is considered an important milestone in the Vietnamese aviation industry, as well as opening up new development opportunities for the economy and society of Dien Bien province. To learn more about this issue, Nguoi Dua Tin had an interview with Mr. Le Thanh Do - Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, Chairman of the People's Committee of Dien Bien province.

Mr. Le Thanh Do - Chairman of Dien Bien Provincial People's Committee.

Nguoi Dua Tin (NDT): Sir, on December 2, Dien Bien Airport was officially reopened after a period of investment, upgrading and expansion. As the head of the province, how do you welcome this event?

Mr. Le Thanh Do: It must be affirmed that this is a great joy for Dien Bien. Before the time Dien Bien airport was reopened, at noon on December 1, an Airbus A321 touched down on the runway of Dien Bien airport, marking a special milestone when for the first time in the history of the airport, it successfully welcomed a large, modern aircraft.

With the upgrading and expansion of Dien Bien airport, the development path of Dien Bien in particular and the entire Northwestern economic region is becoming more and more open and bright. We believe and have strong expectations about the contributions of this key project to the goal of making Dien Bien a locality with breakthrough, rapid and sustainable development.

The project's completion today is thanks first of all to the attention and drastic direction of the Government and the Prime Minister; the attention, support and guidance of central ministries and branches, especially the professional support of the Ministry of Transport and the unity in the direction and management of the Provincial Party Committee, the Provincial People's Committee and departments and branches at all levels.

In addition, the efforts of the investor, contractors, construction units and a large number of workers have focused resources, taken advantage of the weather, accelerated progress, shortened construction time and met the project's quality.

In particular, the project cannot be completed without the support and companionship of the people in the project area. To implement this project, Dien Bien province had to reclaim over 200 hectares of land from more than 1,300 affected households, most of whom understood the importance and significance of the project, so they voluntarily relocated and created favorable conditions for the construction.

Currently, Dien Bien Airport has increased the size of the runway to 2,400m long and 45m wide, meeting technical standards for Airbus A321, A320 and equivalent aircraft.

Investor: Could you please elaborate on the significance of the expansion and upgrading of Dien Bien airport to the development of the Northwestern economic region in general and Dien Bien in particular?

Mr. Le Thanh Do: First of all, it must be affirmed that air transport is of great significance to the development of Dien Bien as well as the entire Northwest region.

For example, if the travel time from Hanoi to Dien Bien by road is about 10 hours, then by air, this time is only about 1 hour, which is a 10-fold reduction. This 10-fold reduction is even more meaningful because passengers will not be too tired from having to travel for too long on a mountain road.

Before being upgraded and expanded, Dien Bien airport had limited clearance at both ends of the runway (mountainous), so it could only receive small aircraft during the day, under weather conditions.

The expansion and upgrade has helped Dien Bien airport to have enough capacity to receive larger aircraft in all weather conditions, increasing service capacity. This is of great significance to the Northwestern economic region as well as Dien Bien province.

Upon completion, the project will create a boost for the province's economy, increasing the ability to mobilize total social investment capital for the entire 2021-2025 period by about VND 15,000 billion. Local budget revenue in 2025 will increase by at least VND 170 billion, per capita income is expected to increase by about USD 189 in 2025, the poverty rate will decrease by about 2% compared to the plan to complete the airport after 2025, contributing to creating direct jobs for about 8,000 workers.

The opening of the air route will help investors and businesses have more basis and confidence to boldly invest in business in Dien Bien. At the same time, it will impact the connection, regional development, and impact the connection and development of international sub-regions.

With its geographical location directly adjacent to Yunnan Province (China), Phongsali Province and Luang Prabang (Laos), Dien Bien is located in an important connection between Vietnam and China and ASEAN. As the only airport of the 6 northwestern border provinces, after the completion of Dien Bien Airport, the province and the entire northwestern region will have the conditions to expand air connections with the ancient capital of Luang Prabang (Laos), Kunming (China), Chiang Mai (Thailand) to develop trade and tourism services, gradually realizing the goal of making Dien Bien the center of the northwestern region, becoming the gateway for trade between Vietnam and countries in the extended Mekong sub-region according to the development cooperation orientation of the Government and ASEAN countries agreed upon.

Investor: With such important meanings, what is Dien Bien province's orientation to effectively exploit Dien Bien airport in the coming time?

Mr. Le Thanh Do: First of all, the Provincial Party Committee and Provincial People's Committee have directed relevant departments and branches to focus on coordinating with Vietnam Airports Corporation and Dien Bien Airport to organize the reopening and re-operation of the airport, ensuring absolute safety and compliance with legal regulations.

In addition, there are currently 4 refund projects related to the Dien Bien airport project under the responsibility of the locality, including the airport bypass project connecting groups 1, 2 and 8 of Thanh Truong ward, Dien Bien Phu city; the airport bypass project connecting the road to Thanh Hung commune and Thanh Luong commune, Dien Bien district; the intra-field road and drainage canal project; the road connecting to the DVOR/DME navigation station. The Provincial People's Committee requested localities, departments and branches to focus on thoroughly handling difficulties, especially removing difficulties in site clearance, promptly bringing these projects to the finish line on schedule, ensuring quality during exploitation.

In particular, Dien Bien province also focuses on directing departments and branches to develop plans and projects to effectively and thoroughly promote the role of Dien Bien airport, focusing on attracting tourism and investment development activities.

On December 2, the People's Committee of Dien Bien province and Vietnam Airlines also signed a comprehensive cooperation agreement for the period 2024 - 2028. Accordingly, Dien Bien province and Vietnam Airlines will strengthen cooperation so that Dien Bien province in particular and the Northwest Economic Region in general can accelerate socio-economic development.

Dien Bien Provincial People's Committee and Vietnam Airlines signed a comprehensive cooperation agreement for the period 2024 - 2028.

Investor: Along with opening the air route, what direction and approach does Dien Bien have to remove the "bottleneck" in traffic infrastructure, paving the way for the province to develop rapidly and sustainably?

Mr. Le Thanh Do: Dien Bien has a terrain that is mainly steep, rugged and strongly divided hills and mountains, with a widely distributed and scattered population, so the development of a connecting infrastructure system faces many difficulties, especially the need for huge investment resources.

This can be considered the biggest “bottleneck” on the development path of the locality because “traffic goes first and paves the way”, without good traffic infrastructure, Dien Bien will find it difficult to attract businesses and tourists even though the province has many potentials and resources. From there, the attractiveness of the province on the economic development map is also reduced.

In recent years, in difficult conditions, Dien Bien has identified this problem and focused on developing infrastructure systems, especially strategic infrastructure, typically the investment project to expand Dien Bien Airport and the connecting traffic network.

Dien Bien has taken advantage of the attention of the Ministry of Transport to invest in upgrading and expanding key national highways such as: National Highway 12, National Highway 279B, National Highway 6, National Highway 4H, facilitating traffic connecting Dien Bien with the capital Hanoi, neighboring economic centers as well as trade with the northern provinces of Laos and Yunnan province (China); forming dynamic economic zones, opening up opportunities for trade, economic development and investment attraction.

Investor: Thank you for the interview.

Tran Thao - Manh Quoc

Source: https://www.nguoiduatin.vn/chu-tich-tinh-dien-bien-con-duong-phat-trien-them-rong-mo-a638942.html