PM demands faster disbursement of public funds for Long Thanh Airport

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc (front, first, right) looks at a map of the Loc An - Binh Son resettlement area in Long Thanh district (Photo: VNA)

Dong Nai - Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc inspected site clearance at the Long Thanh International Airport project on July 21, where he urged Dong Nai province to take more drastic action to disburse public funding for the key national project.

Local authorities reported that over 1.8 trillion VND (77.5 million USD) sourced from Government bonds, or 10.1 percent of total public investment in the Long Thanh Airport project, has been disbursed so far.

The southern province of Dong Nai has finished site clearance on 364.21ha of land, on which two resettlement areas for residents displaced by the project will be built. It still faces difficulties in site clearance on the 5,000ha of land zoned for airport construction.

The province is set to speed up site clearance on the 1,810-ha priority area and begin building facilities in Phase I of the project this year, while the remaining area will be ready in 2021, authorities said.

At a meeting with provincial officials after examining the site clearance and technical infrastructure being built at the Loc An - Binh Son resettlement area in Long Thanh district, PM Phuc highlighted the important role of Dong Nai, which has an economy of over 17 billion USD and per capita income of some 5,300 USD.

He said site clearance for the airport project will be a driving force for local development this year, noting that the funding of 23 trillion VND for site clearance is considerable, so drastic action is needed to push ahead with the task.

Applauding Dong Nai’s resolve to not revise the targets it set at the beginning of this year, he requested the province take stronger action in public investment disbursement in 266 local projects, so that over 95 percent of this year’s public funding will be allocated as planned.

In particular, it must manage to disburse 18 trillion VND to prepare the ground for the airport’s construction - a huge challenge the province must exert every effort to overcome, he said.

The Government leader also told ministries and sectors to assist Dong Nai in implementing the project so that construction can begin this year, adding that site clearance must be completed by October.