Three new facilities expected to give strong boost to Quang Ninh’s tourism

PM Nguyen Xuan Phuc becomes the first passenger arriving at the Van Don International Airport this morning. Photo: VGP

The facilities are Van Don International Airport, Ha Long International Passenger Terminal, and Ha Long-Van Don Expressway, all invested by domestic Sun Group with combined capital of VND 20 trillion (over US$860 million).

The Van Don International Airport is the first Built-Operate-Transfer airport, completed after just 30 months.

The airport is capable of serving Boeing 787, 777, and Airbus A350, A320 with annual designed capacity of 2-2.5 million passengers by 2020 and five million passengers by 2030.

Meanwhile, the Ha Long-Van Don Expressway will help reduce travel time from Ha Noi to Van Don down to 2.5 hours from the current 6 hours.

And the Hon Gai International Passenger Terminal, located on Bai Chay, Ha Long city and jointly built by Sun Group and Quang Ninh province, is capable of receiving two cruise ships with capacity of up to 225,000 GT with passengers totalling 8,460, including the crew, at the same time.

It is a five-star three-storey terminal covering 7,600 square meters and a harbor serving 250 tourist boats carrying visitors to world heritage site Ha Long Bay.

Speaking at the launching ceremony, PM Nguyen Xuan Phuc highly valued the efforts made by Quang Ninh provinces and Sun Group, affirming the Government strongly encourages the development of private economy.

All the three facilities are of significant importance to socio-economic development and built under the public-private form in a short period of time but not many localities can do that, particularly in the face of limited State financial resources, the Government chief stressed.

He also welcomed leaders of many other localities to attend the ceremony and learn Quang Ninh’s infrastructure development experiences.

As this year Quang Ninh welcomed the 15th million tourist, PM Phuc challenged the province to well manage the facilities to soon receive the 50th million tourist.