Expecting to create motivation for disadvantaged areas
According to the decision just issued by the Ministry of Construction, in the period 2021-2030, the whole country will maintain, manage, invest and effectively exploit existing airports, and at the same time plan a system of 36 airports.
The airports supplemented in this plan include Ninh Binh, Gia Binh, Van Phong, Lai Chau, Bach Long Vi, Mang Den and Phan Thiet. According to calculations, the total designed capacity of the airport system by 2030 will reach about 249.14 million passengers per year, with a total investment capital demand of about 577.572 billion VND.
For the northern mountainous provinces, the addition of airports is expected to improve traffic connectivity, diversify types, shorten travel time, and create conditions to attract investment...
The problem of attracting investment and effectively exploiting
However, from planning to implementation in practice, there are still many challenges. The Sa Pa Airport Project (Lao Cai) is a typical example of the difficulties in attracting investors for airport projects in mountainous areas.
The project was approved by the Prime Minister for investment policy in the form of public-private partnership (PPP) from 2021, with a scale of 371ha, total investment capital of nearly 7,000 billion VND, and initial capacity of about 3 million passengers per year.
Although the site clearance work has basically been completed, the project has not yet been able to start construction due to many bidding organizations but investors who have not been selected to meet the requirements have not been selected.
After nearly 5 years since the investment policy was approved, the project has not yet been able to enter the construction phase. According to the approved plan, the implementation time extends to 50 years, including 4 years of construction and 46 years of exploitation and capital recovery. However, finding investors is still the biggest bottleneck.
Mr. Nguyen Van Tan (resident of Bao Ha commune) shared: "Our people have heard about this Sa Pa airport project for many years. But for many years, after people agreed to hand over houses and land to serve construction, there has been no movement so far.
According to Mr. Tan, the smooth site clearance has shown the support of people in the commune. Therefore, people hope that the project needs to be accelerated to create stability for economic development.
Representatives of the Lao Cai Provincial Traffic Construction Investment Project Management Board said that the locality is continuing to coordinate with ministries and sectors to find investors with sufficient capacity, and expects the project to be implemented soon in the near future.
Not only facing difficulties in capital mobilization, post-investment exploitation efficiency is also an issue that needs to be considered. In the Northwest region, Dien Bien Airport - the only airport that has completed upgrades and put into operation - has not yet fully utilized its designed capacity.
The airport currently mainly operates the Dien Bien - Hanoi round-trip route with a frequency of about one flight per day; some weekends are supplemented with evening flights. This reality shows that the demand for air transport in the region is still modest, while the aviation market in general has not recovered evenly.
According to experts, airport investment in mountainous provinces needs to be considered based on many criteria such as transportation needs, socio-economic development capacity, tourism, national defense and security requirements, rescue and relief, natural conditions, airspace, terrain, weather as well as distance to existing airports. Planning to expand the airport system is expected to create more room for development for localities that still face many difficulties. However, for projects to be effective, in addition to planning, it is necessary to have feasible resource mobilization plans to ensure operational efficiency.
