The procedures related to the construction of Long Thanh International Airport are being actively carried out by the Ministry of Transport (MOT) and Dong Nai province for timely commencement. Recently, this large-scale project has received the attention of some of the world's leading airline corporations.
In particular, the project has received abundance of proposals on cooperation in the design and construction of infrastructure and especially the vicinity planning in accordance with the model of an Airport City.
International concern toward "airport city"
Most recently, at the beginning of February 2018, the Government delegation from Netherlands worked with the provincial People's Committee and expressed their interest in participating in urban construction planning surrounding the Long Thanh Airport project. According to the Deputy Minister of Foreign Trade of the Netherlands Marten Van Den Berg, the planning of the vicinity of Long Thanh Airport needs to be in accordance with the model of an airport city. This requires an integrated and computational solution with a long-term vision. "We are actively implementing the Dutch Aviation Vietnam solutions (DAV) under the International Trade Partnership Program 2016-2019, which were signed by the two countries. This is a public-private partnership initiative sponsored by the Netherland Government and attended by nearly 10 airlines form the nation. Our businesses are interested in participating in the development of the Vietnamese aviation market, especially in terms of management experience and technology in which the Netherlands is very successful. In particular, there is an airport city model, not only as a hub for transporting passengers and cargo, but also as a miniature city for socio-economic development," said Mr. Marten Van Den Berg.
The current town of Long Thanh will be one of the important elements of the airport city which Dong Nai is looking forward to building. In picture: A block of Long Thanh town at night.
On behalf of the Netherland businesses, Mr. Kjell Llooster, Chairman of the Netherland Airport Consultants (NACO), said that NACO specializes in airport development, airport design and vicinity planning. ... from beginning to end in the process of constructing a large airport in many countries. "NACO has more than 65 years of experience and more than 600 collaborative projects around the world, which will be of great benefit to construct Long Thanh Airport. Moreover, we can find the characteristics of Long Thanh Airport similar to our Schiphol Amsterdam International Airport," said Mr. Kjell Llooster.
The delegation of the Government of the Netherlands wishes to organize seminars through the Government of Vietnam and Dong Nai People's Committee to introduce international experiences and difficulties encountered by localities; from which experts will find the most suitable solutions. A representative of DAV said that the Netherland government will assist Dong Nai by providing solutions to and a long-term vision of the land fund for future development, as in the Netherlands, after 100 years, there is still land fund to renovate and expand Schiphol Amsterdam International Airport.
Earlier in 2017, a delegation of businesses and universities from Korea came to Dong Nai to seek cooperation opportunities in planning the vicinity of Long Thanh Airport. Professor Hun Koo of Inha University said that South Korea has invested $ 36 billion in Incheon Special Economic Zone in association with Incheon International Airport which is still attracting foreign investment as well as improving the infrastructure in this special zone. "To construct an international airport, service development is very important. If the vicinity of Long Thanh International Airport is planned and developed well, Dong Nai province will have strong motivation to develop itself. With the experience in building Incheon International Airport, Dong Nai can be learned from it to shorten the construction time," said Professor Ha Hun Koo.
Dong Nai is willing to learn from experience
At the meeting with foreign partners, the provincial leaders said that the main responsibility of Dong Nai in building Long Thanh Airport was to clear land and resettle tens of thousands of local residents. At the same time, it is a very important task to plan a 21,000ha vicinity of the airport. With the experience of many developed countries in the world, the airport city model is being prioritized and Dong Nai is willing to welcome the useful information that its partners provide.
According to the Vice Chairman of Dong Nai People's Committee Tran Van Vinh, Dong Nai is drawing up a plan to develop the vicinity of Long Thanh Airport into an urban service area for logistics, industrial parks, entertainment and master parks. In addition, the training of high quality human resources for the construction and operation of airports and related services is very important when the airport city model is finished. The demand for laborforce from these projects is huge and must be prepared early so that when the airport goes into operation there will be enough high quality human resources. These jobs will be better done if there is cooperation with and support from advanced countries. "The objectives of planning the vicinity is to serve the airport well and combine with the advantages of transport infrastructure such as highways, seaports ... to develop itself into a socio-economic area. As for Dong Nai, as well as neighboring provinces. Planning issues depend on geography, cultural identity and development level of each country, but with the success of large and advanced airport models in the world, Dong Nai is ready for adoption and cooperation," Vice Chairman of the provincial People's Committee Tran Van Vinh delivered his speech at the meeting with the Netherland Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Marten Van Den Berg and business delegation of the country on February 7.
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