Bidding criteria for Long Thanh Airport terminal to remain unchanged

The Airports Corporation of Vietnam (ACV) will again issue tender invitations for the Long Thanh airport passenger terminal in March with contractor selection criteria and contract implementation period unchanged.

The information was revealed by ACV deputy general director Do Tat Binh, also head of the management board of the Long Thanh International Airport project in the southern province of Dong Nai, which borders Ho Chi Minh City.

In December 2022, ACV canceled the first tender for Package No. 5.10 “Construction and Equipment Installation for the Passenger Terminal Building”. The VND35,233 billion ($1.49 billion) package includes design, construction, and equipment installation for the terminal. It is classed as the biggest package for the first phase of the airport.

It was planned to take 990 days, or 33 months, including weekends, holidays, and the Lunar New Year (Tet) holiday as prescribed by Vietnamese laws from the effective date of the contract.

In October 2022, ACV held a pre-bidding conference, with around 10 contractors from Germany, Japan, South Korea, China and Vietnam taking part. However, when the bidding closed on November 8, it was found that related files were not qualified under Article 17 of the Law on Bidding. Thus, ACV extended the deadline for bids to the end of November.

ACV then received only one bid from a consortium of companies: Coteccons, Vinaconex, Centra, Phuc Hung Holdings, REE, Hoa Binh Construction, and Hawee. It decided to cancel the bidding in mid-December as the dossier did not meet all the requirements.

"According to the law, we will invite bids again with the same criteria as the first tender," Binh told The Investor.

As the package has a huge value and includes multiple complex works, the selection of a capable contractor is very important, he said.

However, he also noted that the criteria are causing difficulties for bidders. For example, they are required to have completed the construction of an airport terminal or a special structure worth no less than VND14,093 billion ($601 million), which is rare in Vietnam.

The contract implementation time of 33 months also puts pressure on the contractor to complete such a large package, he added. However, Binh held that if the time is lengthened, the completion of the airport may miss the deadline set by the National Assembly and Government

"The cancellation of the package will not only delay the start of the passenger terminal in particular, but also affect the progress of the whole project," he noted.

According to the Ministry of Transport, site clearance for the airport project is behind schedule, with the passenger terminal, cargo terminal, runway, and aircraft apron facing procedural problems.

Inspecting the key national project on January 29, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh requested provincial authorities to complete the handover of ground for the first stage of construction by the end of the first quarter. “By the end of the second quarter, the sites for logistics and access roads for the airport must be ready,” the government leader said.

The PM asked relevant ministries and state agencies to urgently work on solutions to speed up the second tender. He demanded reports from concerned units on why the first bidding process failed, and reminded ACV to prepare alternatives to avoid a similar failure.

A key infrastructure project in southern Vietnam, Long Thanh International Airport has a designed capacity of 100 million passengers per year. It is expected to help ease overloading at Tan Son Nhat International Airport in HCMC. The new airport will cover more than 5,580 hectares in Dong Nai's Long Thanh district.

Construction work began in 2021 and the new airport is set to open in 2025. The second phase is scheduled for completion by 2050.

The new airport is located about 40 kilometers east of HCMC, Vietnam’s southern economic hub.