Vietnam targets $10b for new major airport

The Vietnamese government plans to issue bonds, tap official development assistance funding and seek private funds to raise $10 billion to build the country’s biggest airport over the next decade, a state-run newspaper reports.

The infrastructure of the Long Thanh airport in the southern province of Dong Nai will be built by funds provided by the government and from official development assistance while private funding – including foreign and domestic loans – will be used to construct the passenger terminal, the Vietnam News daily says.

Construction will be in three phases, starting in 2015, and the airport, 27 mi. northeast of Ho Chi Minh City, will handle 25 million passengers a year by 2020, more than double the capacity of the city’s existing Tan Son Nhat airport.

By 2035 it will serve 100 million passengers a year, says the paper, which is run by the official Vietnam News Agency. Transport Minister Dinh La Thang released the airport’s development plan on Friday in Dong Nai province.

More than $6.7 billion is needed for site clearance and first-phase construction, the paper cites the plan as saying. It gave no further details of funding sources.

Vietnam’s net foreign debt is forecast to rise to $18.8 billion in 2012, or 13.6% of its gross domestic product, up from $17.3 billion this year, before easing to $16 billion in 2013, Fitch Ratings says in its latest report on Vietnam.

Fitch reaffirmed Vietnam’s long-term foreign-currency rating at ‘B+’ with stable outlook, placing the country in a peer group with another nine countries, including Mongolia, Bolivia, Venezuela, Ghana and Zambia. – Reuters

Tags: Vietnam aviation, Vietnam aviation industry, Vietnam aviation market