What did the Capital Committee Chief say about the largest contract package of Long Thanh Airport being complained about?

Construction starts in August

Sharing with VietNamNet , a leader of the State Capital Management Committee - the unit holding more than 95% of capital at Vietnam Airports Corporation (ACV) - the investor of Long Thanh Airport project, said that ACV will start construction of Long Thanh Airport terminal as planned.

ACV is urgently implementing the project in accordance with the direction of the Government and the Prime Minister.

Previously, at the regular Government meeting in July, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh requested that the construction of Long Thanh Airport terminal be started in August 2023.

At the meeting of the State Steering Committee for important national projects and works, key to the Transport sector on July 13, the Prime Minister also directed that the construction of the passenger terminal at Long Thanh Airport must begin in August.

Regarding the site clearance situation, according to the Chairman of the People's Committee of Long Thanh district (Dong Nai province), by the end of July 2023, the site clearance work at the Long Thanh Airport project phase 1 was 100% completed (2,532 hectares).

The statement of the representative of the State Capital Management Committee was made in the context that the representative of Hoa Lu consortium - 1 of 3 consortiums (along with Vietur consortium) participating in the bidding for package 5.10 of Long Thanh International Airport has just filed a complaint about the fact that only one consortium passed the technical round and claimed that the Turkish contractor was incompetent.

Speaking with VietNamNet on August 5, a representative of the Hoa Lu joint venture said that the joint venture of these contractors had filed a complaint and sent it to the authorities.

"The consortium is exercising its right to petition according to the Law on Bidding and the instructions of the bidding documents. The petition has been sent to relevant state agencies as prescribed," the representative affirmed and did not comment further at this time.

*Long Thanh Airport is considered a national key project and no step is allowed to be delayed.*

Previously, the market leaked information that Hoa Lu consortium had filed a petition. In which, there were many complaints about the 5.10 package worth more than 35,200 billion VND to construct Long Thanh International Airport, invested by ACV.

The complainant said there was evidence that the leading member of the Vietur consortium violated bidding regulations and was not qualified to meet the technical requirements of package 5.10 for the construction of Long Thanh Airport.

In the above document, Hoa Lu presented some evidence that IC Holdings - the Turkish enterprise leading the Vietur consortium - did not meet the technical standards to win the bid; at the same time, it claimed that IC Holdings had a history of delaying the construction of many projects and had a history of having major projects terminated, had a history of suing investors; IC Holdings' airport construction experience was untrue and showed signs of delay...

Hoa Lu proposed that ACV stop opening the financial documents of package 5.10 (round 2, after the technical round) and request to review and verify the capacity of the contractor consortium or invite a third independent unit (international consultant) with full capacity and expertise to re-evaluate the technical bidding documents of the parties.

The bidding package is in accordance with regulations and will follow the plan?

Answering the question of whether the bidding package 5.10 of the Long Thanh Airport terminal construction project will continue to round 2 (financial round, after the technical round) and whether the Hoa Lu consortium's complaint will affect the project's progress, the leader of the State Capital Management Committee said that the bidding for package 5.10 is carried out in accordance with regulations and according to plan.

On August 1, ACV announced that the Vietur consortium (including 3 companies of Mr. Nguyen Ba Duong) met the technical requirements for the 5.10 package. This means that the remaining 2 consortiums, Hoa Lu and CHEC-BCEG-Vietnam Contractors (led by China Harbour Engineering of China) were eliminated from the bidding process.

The Hoa Lu consortium, led by Coteccons, includes eight contractors: Hoa Binh, Central, An Phong, Delta, Unicons, Thanh An and Power Line Engineering (PLE - Thailand). This is the only consortium led by a domestic contractor and has committed to completing the project by August 2026 if it wins the bid.

Vietur consortium consists of 10 members, led by ICISTAS Industrial and Commercial-Construction Group. ICISTAS belongs to IC İbrahim Cecen Investment Holding (Türkiye), established in 1969. This unit has a lot of experience in implementing large infrastructure projects such as ports, airports, energy,... in the United Arab Emirates, Russia... including major international airports in countries: Russia, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Bulgaria...

In this consortium, there are 3 businesses in the ecosystem of Mr. Nguyen Ba Duong - former Chairman of the Board of Directors of Coteccons: Newtecons, Ricons and SOL E&C.

The Long Thanh Airport construction project is a national key project with a very large investment scale, including many component projects, including the important package 5.10, worth more than 35,200 billion VND.

Long Thanh Airport is considered a national key project and no step is allowed to be delayed.

Responding to the press, ACV leaders said that since it is the bidding stage, the unit cannot provide any information. These are confidential documents, ACV cannot publish them. And it will be until August 22 that ACV can provide official information. The assessment of contractor capacity is done by a team of experts, an independent unit, and ACV does not participate.

Failing to bid for Long Thanh airport, what did Hoa Lu Joint Venture say about the complaint? According to Hoa Lu Joint Venture, only one joint venture passed the technical round of the 35,000 billion VND bidding package for Long Thanh airport and the Turkish contractor lacked capacity.

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