Favorable signal for early investment in runway number 3, Long Thanh Airport

The investment in runway No. 3 worth about 3,455 billion VND in phase I will contribute to improving investment efficiency, facilitating the operation of the "super project" Long Thanh International Airport.

The investment in runway No. 3 worth about 3,455 billion VND in phase I will contribute to improving investment efficiency, facilitating the operation of the "super project" Long Thanh International Airport.

Construction site of Long Thanh International Airport Project. Photo: PM

The work is "ripe", needs to be implemented immediately

“Because the adjustment of the investment policy of the Long Thanh International Airport Project will be considered and approved by the National Assembly at the 8th Session, the appraisal progress of the Project must be carried out very urgently, responsibly, and with smooth coordination between relevant agencies. The appraisal result report must be submitted to the Prime Minister no later than November 5,” Mr. Nguyen Chi Dung, Minister of Planning and Investment, Chairman of the State Appraisal Council noted at the appraisal meeting on the adjustment of the Project investment policy held late last week.

According to the Agenda of the 8th Session of the 15th National Assembly, on November 13, the Minister of Transport will, on behalf of the Prime Minister, present a report on adjusting the investment policy of the Long Thanh International Airport Project in Resolution No. 94/2015/QH13 of the National Assembly on the investment policy of the Long Thanh International Airport Project and Resolution No. 95/2019/QH14 dated November 26, 2019 on approving a number of main contents of the Feasibility Study Report of the Long Thanh International Airport Project Phase I.

Previously, on October 2, the Ministry of Transport issued Document No. 10626/TTr-BGTVT requesting the Prime Minister to consider and assign the Ministry of Planning and Investment to advise on the organization of appraisal and adjustment of the investment policy of the Long Thanh International Airport Project to submit to the Government for consideration and submit to the National Assembly for approval of the adjustment of the investment policy of this particularly important project.

In Submission No. 10626, there are 2 contents related to Resolution No. 94/2015/QH13 and Resolution No. 95/2019/QH14 that the Ministry of Transport proposed the Government to report to competent authorities for consideration and adjustment.

Firstly, the Ministry of Transport proposed to adjust the scale and implementation time of phase I - Long Thanh International Airport Project (stipulated in Clause 6, Article 2, Resolution No. 94/2015/QH13).

Specifically, “Phase I: Invest in the construction of 2 runways in the North and a passenger terminal along with synchronous auxiliary items with a capacity of 25 million passengers/year, 1.2 million tons of cargo/year; complete and put into operation by 2026 at the latest” and “The Government directs the preparation of a feasibility study report and investment decisions for each phase of the Project in accordance with the provisions of law”.

Second, adjust the investment scale of phase I (stipulated in Clause 1, Article 1, Resolution No. 95/2019/QH14) as follows: "Invest in the construction of 2 runways in the North and a passenger terminal with synchronous auxiliary items with a capacity of 25 million passengers/year; 1.2 million tons of cargo/year".

At the meeting of the State Appraisal Council, most Council members highly agreed with the adjustment of the scale of Phase I of the Project proposed by the Ministry of Transport.

According to the assessment of the Interdisciplinary Appraisal Team, investing in runway 3 next to and to the north of runway 1 under construction will bring many benefits to management and operation: meeting the needs of operation when one runway has problems; ensuring the continuous operation of Long Thanh International Airport.

“The investment in runway No. 3 is not costly, and is part of the total investment of Component Project 3 implemented by Vietnam Airports Corporation (ACV), so there is not much difficulty in mobilizing capital,” said the interdisciplinary appraisal expert team.

According to Minister Nguyen Chi Dung, during the research phase and preparation of the pre-feasibility study report for the Long Thanh International Airport Project, due to concerns about difficulties in mobilizing investment capital, the Government reported to the National Assembly to propose implementing investment phases, including a system of 4 runways.

However, during the implementation of Component Project 3, ACV said that the reserve fund and savings through bidding were enough to invest in runway number 3 right in phase I.

During the implementation of Component Project 3, to ensure the operational clearance for runway 1, the foundation of runway 3 has been leveled to the design elevation, so only some additional costs need to be added (such as costs for constructing road surface structures, installing equipment, etc.). The preliminary total investment for runway 3 is about VND 3,455 billion, accounting for a small proportion and still within the total investment of Component Project 3 implemented by ACV of VND 99,019 billion.

“The conditions for investing in runway 3 are very favorable and effective. In addition to not making good use of surplus capital, investing in runway 3 in the later phase may incur significant costs compared to investing in runway 1 in phase 1. This is a ‘ripe’ and appropriate project that needs to be boldly implemented immediately,” Minister Nguyen Chi Dung assessed.

Determine exact completion time

In Document No. 10626, the Ministry of Transport said that the investment progress of runway No. 3 is about 24 months after the competent authority approves the adjustment of the investment policy, of which the preparation time is about 12 months and the construction time is about 12 months.

Time and roadmap for implementing the Long Thanh International Airport Project according to Resolution No. 94/2015/QH13 dated June 25, 2015 of the National Assembly

Long Thanh International Airport project includes 3 phases:

Phase I: Invest in the construction of a runway and a passenger terminal along with synchronous auxiliary items with a capacity of 25 million passengers/year and 1.2 million tons of cargo/year; complete and put into operation by 2025 at the latest;

Phase II: Continue to invest in building an additional open-configuration runway and a passenger terminal to reach a capacity of 50 million passengers/year and 1.5 million tons of cargo/year;

Phase III: Complete the Project items to reach a capacity of 100 million passengers/year and 5 million tons of cargo/year.

The Government directs the preparation of feasibility study reports for each phase of the Project and reports to the National Assembly for approval before deciding on investment.

"Thus, if the National Assembly approves the investment policy at the end of 2024, runway 3 will be completed by the end of 2026," said Mr. Nguyen Duy Lam, Deputy Minister of Transport.

According to Mr. Nguyen Tien Viet, Deputy General Director in charge of ACV, because it does not increase the total investment of Component Project 3, it does not affect the investor's capital mobilization plan, does not affect the contracts that ACV has signed with syndicated banks; is balanced and guaranteed in the capital/disbursement plan for 2024 and 2025 for Component Project 3.

It should be added that even if the third runway item is not added, the completion time of the component projects of phase I must still be extended compared to the end of 2025 deadline set by the National Assembly.

According to the Ministry of Transport, the investment preparation time for the Project is about 5 years because it takes a long time to carry out the procedures according to regulations, of which the architectural competition takes about 2 years; the preparation of the Feasibility Study Report takes 1 year due to the complexity of the Project; the submission, appraisal and approval of the investment project takes about 2 years.

During the implementation process, the Project continued to encounter some difficulties, leading to failure to meet the progress set by the National Assembly. Specifically, for Component Project 1: The headquarters of a number of state management agencies (customs, animal/plant health quarantine) have not yet been timely allocated a medium-term capital plan for 2021-2025.

For Component Project 3 invested by ACV, the progress of technical design work was delayed due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the mobilization of foreign experts; the selection of a contractor for the construction of the passenger terminal was prolonged (bidding had to be organized twice).

Currently, the critical path of the entire Phase I Project is in Component Project 4, invested by the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam. The selection of investors in the aviation sector is confusing because this is the first time it is being implemented.

In addition, the implementation process must also be adjusted and updated in accordance with legal regulations, leading to the progress of Component Project 4 being very slow compared to the overall progress of the entire Phase I Project.

“With the above implementation status, all four component projects of the Long Thanh International Airport Project can be completed by 2026,” said a representative of the Ministry of Transport.

Regarding the adjustment of the Project completion time, the representative of the Interdisciplinary Appraisal Expert Group acknowledged that the Ministry of Transport has clarified the reasons why most component projects cannot be completed by the end of 2025.

“Given the current implementation of the Project, extending the completion time is something that needs to be considered. However, the Ministry of Transport needs to clarify the possibility of completing Phase I of the Project in 2026 as well as determine the exact time of putting the project into operation, whether it is early, mid or late 2026, so that the Government can have a specific report to the National Assembly,” the representative of the Interdisciplinary Appraisal Team suggested.

Source: https://baodautu.vn/tin-hieu-thuan-de-dau-tu-som-duong-cat-ha-canh-so-3-san-bay-long-thanh-d229027.html