Dong Nai plans urban area development to exploit new airport

The southern province of Dong Nai will develop five major urban areas to cash in on the Long Thanh International Airport, set to become the largest one in the country.

The southern province of Dong Nai will develop five major urban areas to cash in on the Long Thanh International Airport, set to become the largest one in the country.

The five areas are the towns of Bien Hoa and Long Khanh and the districts of Nhon Trach, Trang Bom and Long Thanh.

Under a development plan for the region already approved by the government, Long Thanh district will serve as a satellite town to support regional development. It is envisaged as an industrially developed district by 2030; and an urban and industrial area by 2040 with world-class trade activity and services as well as a sustainable agriculture and forestry sector.

The Airports Corporation of Vietnam (ACV) plans to start construction of the Long Thanh International Airport’s first passenger terminal this October.

Covering more than 5,580 hectares, the new airport will spread across six communes in Long Thanh district.

The construction will be done in three phases. In the first one, set for completion in 2025, a runway and a passenger terminal, along with other supporting facilities will be built to annually serve 25 million passengers and 1.2 million tons of cargo.

An artist’s impression of Long Thanh International Airport in Dong Nai province, southern Vietnam. Photo courtesy of ACV.

The airport, about 40 kilometers from downtown HCMC, is expected to relieve overloading at the Tan Son Nhat International Airport in HCMC. Once it is fully completed in 2050, it will be able to handle 100 million passengers and five million tons of cargo annually. 

Alongside the Long Thanh airport, other key national infrastructure projects are underway, including the Phan Thiet-Dau Giay, Ben Luc-Long Thanh, Bien Hoa-Vung Tau expressways, together with Ring Road 3 in the Greater HCMC region.

Dong Nai province, part of the Southern Key Economic Zone along with HCMC, Long An, Binh Duong, Tay Ninh, and Ba Ria-Vung Tau, has the manufacturing industry as its main growth driver. It is also a major foreign direct investment (FDI) destination. Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan are among the leading investors in the province.