Turkish giant IC Holding seeks to join Long Thanh airport project

Private Turkish conglomerate IC Holding is looking to join the mega Long Thanh airport project in Vietnam’s southern province of Dong Nai as passenger terminal contractor.

An executive of the Turkish multi-sector business made the statement at a Friday meeting in Hanoi with Minister of Transport Nguyen Van Thang. The executive added that the firm, per its experiences of doing mega projects in foreign countries like Russia and Saudi Arabia, is willing to join more traffic infrastructure projects in Vietnam, with Long Thanh International Airport as the initial one.

Welcoming the proposal, Minister Thang asked IC Holding to make quick progress as the bidding for the airport project is scheduled to close on June 12. He also requested relevant aviation authorities of Vietnam to aid the Turkish giant in the process.

The mega Long Thanh airport has a total estimated investment of VND336.63 trillion ($14.12 billion), with three phases. The first phase, costing VND110 trillion, will include a runway, passenger terminal and auxiliary works capable of serving 25 million passengers a year. Work began in 2021 and the new airport is set to open in 2025. The second phase is scheduled for completion by 2050.

Covering more than 5,580 hectares in Long Thanh district, about 40 kilometers east of Ho Chi Minh City, the new airport is expected to help ease overloading at Tan Son Nhat International Airport in HCMC, Vietnam’s southern economic hub.

Initial selections of contractors to build the passenger terminal failed because none of the applicants were able to commit to meeting the deadline. The key package includes design, construction, and equipment installation for the terminal.

With a total investment of VND35.23 trillion ($1.49 billion), it is 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 from the effective date of the contract.

In September 2022, state-run Airports Corporation of Vietnam (ACV), the main investor, first issued tender invitations for the passenger terminal. 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, the corporation extended the deadline for bids to the end of November.

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

At the government’s monthly press meeting on Friday, Deputy Minister of Construction Nguyen Danh Huy said the first phase of the project has completed 66% of ground leveling and basically finished the pile foundation. However, construction of the passenger terminal saw little progress due to its complexity, while the prices in the bidding package are not attractive.