The current Vung Tau airport mainly receives helicopters involved in logistics for the petroleum sector

The site planning for the new airport covers 248 hectares on Go Gang Island in Vung Tau city’s Long Son commune, still a primitive area and one of the favourite venues to local and international visitors.

Vung Tau People’s Committee has assigned the Transport Project Management Unit in Cai Mep-Thi Vai area to work with relevant sectors and branches on the project survey and further study for submission to the province’s management.

The Go Gang airport project aims to serve the plan to relocate the existing Vung Tau airport in Ward 9, Vung Tau city. The current airport is mainly used for helicopters providing logistics services to the petroleum sector. The development of a commercial airport, therefore, would affect the city’s development planning as well as people’s safety.

Vung Tau airport provides intra-regional air taxi and helicopter services. The new airport was designed with the International Civil Aviation Organization's (ICAO) 3C standards and level 2 military airport standards, with the capacity to receive 100,000 passengers and 500 tonnes of goods per year.

The new airport will have an investment value of around $1 billion. Two plans have been proposed to raise investment capital for the project: first, selling the land of that existing airport to raise capital or second, applying the public-private partnership (PPP) or build-operate-transfer (BOT) investment mode under which the investor will build the new airport in Go Gang, then exploit it and use the land of the existing airport to recoup capital. In the second scenario, the investor could retain the right to exploit the airportfor a certain period of time.

Late last year, a consortium consisting of privately-held Van Phu Invest and VCI Investment JSC submitted a proposal to Vung Tau management agencies asking to engage in study, draw up plans, and invest in building the airport on Go Gang Island. Earlier, another consortium consisting of Military Housing Development Investment JSC (MHDI) and Song Hong ICT JSC also proposed building the airport.

In early February 2020, Ba Ria Vung Tau People’s Committee granted investment decisions and certificates to four investment projects with the value surpassing VND4.1 trillion ($178.26 million) and approved supplemental capital of VND1.65 trillion ($71.74 million) for one existing project.

Accordingly, Vietnam-Vung Tau Heineken Brewery Ltd., the owner of a modern brewery with an annual capacity of 610 million litres of beer got the thumbs-up to raise investment by an additional VND1.65 trillion ($71.74 million) to reach VND9.151 trillion ($397.87 million).

On the occasion, Vung Tau Party Secretary Nguyen Hong Linh pledged to push up the pace of key investment projects in the province in 2020, including building Phuoc An bridge, soon starting the construction of Bien Hoa-Vung Tau Expressway and Go Gang airport, and proposing the government to add 4C standards Ho Tram airport designed for tourism purposes.

In late 2018, Ho Tram Ltd. proposed the province to implement the airport project on more than 244ha of space in the province’s Dat Do district to serve Ho Tram Strip premier resort and entertainment complex. The airport, with an estimated investment value of VND4.25 trilion ($184.78 million) aims to receive chartered flights carrying visitors to the resort venue.

Vung Tau land prices soar following airport project

Land prices in Vung Tau City have surged as soon as it was announced that Go Gang Airport will be built on a 250 ha of land in Long Son District.   

Ba Ria-VungTau Province is preparing to relocate and replace Vung Tau Airport to Go GangIsland and a 245.8ha of land have recently been chosen as the construction site. Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province has had plans to build Con Son Airport on Con Dao Island, Loc An-Ho Tram airport and Go Gang Airport.

In early 2019, when the provincial authorities announced the transport masterplan to 2030 including the Loc An-Ho Tran airport, land prices changed drastically when brokers and investors flocked to the area. The price of each hectare of land increased from VND500-700m (USD21,400-30,000) to VND1.5-2bn.

To Thi Hong Thao, chairwoman of Lang Dai Commune, Dat Do District, said the exact location of the airport hadn't even been announced at that time but lots of farmers had already put up their land for sale. In the first months of 2019, Dat Do District recorded over 2,000 land transaction cases which included 900 land transfer cases.

A similar situation occurred when the airport project in Go Gang was announced. According to a landowner, he has a 700m2 of land by the street and will sell for VND1.9bn (USD81,400). Another 12,000-square-metre land will be sold for over VND6bn.

Hoang Kim Hoai, director of Phuc Dien Land Company, said the real estate market bloomed recently due to various infrastructure projects. In early 2020, investors flocked to Binh Ba Commune, Chau Duc Province, in one week just because a major company came to conduct a field survey for two projects that cover over 800ha. The land prices tripled. However, after the broker left, prices also decreased.

Lecturer Le Ba Chi Nhan from the University of Economics, Ho Chi Minh City, said there were many risks with land investment amid rumours about new urban areas or infrastructure projects. For example, Nhon Trach Urban Project in Dong Nai City hasn't been completed even though the project was approved 20 years ago.

It is common for the brokers to take advantages of the new projects to push land prices up. VIR/Dtinews

Anh Duc

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