Three months before it’s supposed to open, Vietnam’s flagship airport project, Long Thanh International near Ho Chi Minh City, has come under a cloud with the arrests of four executives involved in the project.
Those arrested include the chairman of the state-owned airport operator, Airports Corporation of Vietnam (ACV), which awarded the $1.3bn contract to build the airport terminal building to a consortium led by Turkish contractor IC Içtas in August 2023.
ACV confirmed the arrests on 4 March of its chairman Mr Vu The Phiet and deputy chief executive Mr Nguyen Tien Viet in a notice to the Hanoi Stock exchange.
‘Particularly serious consequences’
The notice said the arrests were “in connection with alleged violations of regulations on bidding resulting in particularly serious consequences, and for accepting money to facilitate contractors in winning bids”.
Three days later, police arrested two executives of Vietnamese company Vinaconex, a member of the terminal-building consortium.
Vinaconex also confirmed the arrests. It said board member and deputy general director, Mr Nguyen Huu Toi, was arrested “for violating bidding regulations causing extremely serious consequences” and “giving money to the investor to be given favourable conditions to win the bid”.
The second Vinaconex executive was Mr Duong Van Mau, also a board member and deputy general director, whom the company said was arrested for violating bidding regulations.
The first phase of construction, including the terminal building and runway, are due to be completed by the first half of this year.
Second time unlucky?
ACV originally tendered the terminal building contract in September 2022, but cancelled when the sole bid from a domestic consortium failed to meet its requirements.
It then issued an international tender, which was won by the IC Içtas consortium. This consortium included nine Vietnamese firms, including Vinaconex.
‘Eat quickly and sleep urgently’
Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh previously chastised slow work on a site visit in 2023, demanding that contractors stop gossiping and eat “quickly” and sleep “urgently”, according to newspaper Xay Dung.
Long Thanh will be built on a site in Dong Nai Province about 40km east of Ho Chi Minh City. ACV has raised $6.1bn to carry out the project, with the expected construction cost for the first phase is $4.1bn.
The full project has been costed at $16bn and will be divided into three phases. Phase two includes a second runway along with another terminal to serve 50 million passengers per year, with the third phase able to accommodate 100 million passengers a year.
Long Thanh will replace Tan Son Nhat International Airport as the largest and busiest in Vietnam, with Tan Son Nhat switching to only domestic travel.
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