The National Assembly Economic Committee has proposed the legislative body should apply a special mechanism for construction of the USD16-billion Long Thanh International Airport Project in southern Vietnam.
Long Thanh International Airport project
According to Chairman of the National Assembly Economic Committee Nguyen Van Giau, the National Assembly needs to earmark the amount of government investment for the project early so that site clearance and compensation for resettlement can be conducted before the project's feasible study is approved.
This is a huge project so this special mechanism should be used to ensure its first phase to be completed in 2023 as scheduled, Giau said. He also noted that if the current regulations are applied, the project would be unlikely to meet the deadline.
A report from Dong Nai Province showed that around 4,730 households and 26 agencies are affected by the site clearance of the project's first phase and the cost of this work is some VND11.27 trillion (USD530 million).
Dang Minh Duc, Director of the provincial Department of Natural Resources and Environment, said many local households had to move to other places for the project's site clearance, but had yet to receive any compensation.
"The special mechanism needs to be applied to ease local outrage over the sluggish project site clearance and compensation process," Duc said.
Construction of Long Thanh International Airport is scheduled to begin in 2019, and the airport is intended to become operational by 2023. The project's funding is expected to come from the state budget, official development assistance, corporate investment and public-private partnerships.
Once operational, Long Thanh International Airport will reduce congestion at Tan Son Nhat International Airport in HCM City.
