VietNamNet Bridge - The People's Committee of Quang Ninh has recently announced a series of transport infrastructure projects worth hundreds of million USD. Will these giant projects help this northern coastal province develop?

Massive projects

Ha Long Bay, Quang Ninh.

$350 million Van Don Airport: Quang Ninh has approved the feasibility report of the Van Don airport project. As planned, the airport will be built on 248.6ha in the Van Don Island District's Economic Zone, with an estimated investment capital of VND7.49 trillion (US$351.6 million), including the costs for site clearance.

The district is required to complete the site clearance process before March 30 this year, in order to begin construction of the airport in April, after the investor is selected.

The project is a joint venture of the Korea Airport Corporation, Joinus Vietnam Joint Stock Company and Posco E&C Joint – Stock Company. It's estimated that the investors will need 45 years from the time the airport becomes operational to recoup their investment capital, the longest time needed by an infrastructure project.

Earlier, a proposal sent to the provincial People's Committee by the investors said the project would have a capacity of handling 6.6 million passengers with a total investment capital of nearly $654 million (not including the costs for site clearance). Twenty-one per cent of the capital would be paid by investors and the remainder is expected to come from commercial loans.

The airport is in the list of projects for which the Quang Ninh authorities have been inviting investment capital. The leading project is a casino project in the Van Don Economic Zone, which is to have between $4 billion and $5 billion in investment and is scheduled to open by 2019. It is expected to be a centre of culture, sport, tourism, trade and health services, besides education and training, environment and agriculture.

The list, comprising 35 projects in the fields of industrial parks and urban areas, will also include projects of infrastructure for transport such as the 153.3km-long, four-lane Ha Long – Van Don – Mong Cai highway, a link to the Quang Ninh Airport, and upgrading of national highway 18's 25.6km-long section from Ha Long City to Mong Duong Ward in Cam Pha City.

The Prime Minister has decided to include the Van Don Economic Zone in the group of coastal economic zones that will receive investment capital from the State budget in the 2013-15 period.

Besides being given investment preference as per current regulations, the Van Don Economic Zone will benefit from special policies such as being given priority for mobilising the official development assistance (ODA) funds for a number of important infrastructure projects in the zone, and receiving a maximum of 50 per cent of counterpart capital for the government's ODA project.

Other projects such as the airport, the Van Don information and technology infrastructure, the Van Don International Hospital and the cross-island road system projects will be considered for being allocated part of the State budget, the government's bond funds and ODA as well.

The zone is allowed to borrow capital from the government's foreign loans to carry out projects to develop tourism ports and marinas.

Bac Luan II Bridge: Work began on March 15, 2015 on the construction of a 3.5km-long road to Bac Luan II bridge, connecting Quang Ninh Province's Mong Cai city with the Chinese Guangxi Province's Dongxing city.

The approach road will have six lanes, including four lanes for motorised vehicles, and will have a speed limit of 80km/hour. It has a total investment of more than VND930 billion (US$43.7 million) and will be built within 12 months on a build-operate-transfer basis.

The construction of Bac Luan II began in November last year, and the bridge is expected become operational in October this year. The bridge is 618m long and 27.7m wide, and is about 3.2km from the current Bac Luan Bridge.

The Bac Luan II bridge project was proposed in 2006 and approved by the Vietnamese and Chinese governments in March 2012, after 11 rounds of official talks between the two sides.

The bridge will be jointly built and owned by the two countries. Vietnam has invested more than VND335 billion (US$15.74 million) in the project.

Once complete, the Bac Luan II, together with the future Ha Long-Mong Cai expressway, will play an important role in transportation and trade exchange between the two countries, especially for the key northern economic zones.

Ha Long - Mong Cai Highways Project (Ha Long - Van Don section) and the project to upgrade Highway 18 (Ha Long - Mong Duong): Quang Ninh authorities recently had a meeting with the contractors to discuss the two projects.

The contractors offered the following options, with the cost of VND11.2 trillion, VND11.7 trillion, VND13.8 trillion, and VND14.2 trillion. The investment form is build-operate-transfer (BOT), with a duration of 25 years.

Will giant infrastructure projects help Quang Ninh’s economy?

Most of these huge projects are built under the BOT mode. This is considered the most effective form of investment attraction into infrastructure projects in Vietnam.

Most of the projects will be operated by investors for a long time. In addition, Quang Ninh promised to create more favorable conditions and give big incentives to attract investment in transport infrastructure.

Concentrating investments in infrastructure represents a vision of Quang Ninh as its important position in linking economic development between Vietnam and China as well as the role as a gateway of ASEAN with China.

Besides infrastructure projects, Quang Ninh has also focused on attracting foreign and domestic investment in agriculture, industry, tourism and others.

Recently, Vingroup has proposed to invest in large scale agriculture in Quang Ninh.

With aggressive investment in infrastructure, Quang Ninh is expected to better exploit its strengths and potentials such as the maritime economy, tourism, border trade, agriculture, and industry to become an economic bright spot of north Vietnam.

Minh Son