Myanmar reboots new airport tender

YANGON – Sometimes, the most solid investors can default. This is what Myanmar is currently experiencing with a South Korean investor for a future Greenfield airport. 
 

With tourism booming like never before –one million more foreign travellers came in just one year time with a total of – Myanmar air transport infrastructure are increasingly under pressure. In just three years, Yangon International Airport has seen its traffic jumping from less than two million passengers in 2010 to 3.7 million passengers last year, far higher than its theoretical capacity of 2.7 million annual passengers. The current airport is due to be expanded to 6 million by 2017 but this number is likely to be reached very rapidly. In 2012, the Myanmar government opened bid for the construction of a new international airport on the outskirt of Yangon. The new Hanthawaddy International Airport – 80 km away from Yangon but near Bago city- would be developed in its first phase to welcome 12 million passengers a year.The bidding process for the US$ 1.5 billion airport was finally attributed to the prestigious Incheon International Airport Corp (IIAC), which runs Seoul international airport. 
 

Korea was already involved for the construction of a first version of the airport back to 1994. according to a statement from the Korean Transport Ministry, the final contract for the US$1.1 billion project will be signed by the end of the year. 
 

However last Monday, the government decided to temporarily suspend the bid from after the winning South Korean company hit problems funding the $1.5-billion project. The information was provided by Tin Naing Tun, director general of Myanmar’s civil aviation department. “We have no issue with the technical side (of the bid) — the company has a lot of experience. But we had some difficulties while negotiating the financial part,” he told reporters at the first Myanmar Civil Aviation Development conference in Yangon.
 

After discussions with the two leading bidders, the government decided to act as a guarantor for loans up to half the cost of the project and would relaunch the tender. Nothing has been said about the possible reappointment of Korean investors. 
 

“Whether you say it’s our expectation or our dream, we will put infrastructure and strategic plans in place to get our position as an aviation hub back in 2030,” Tin Naing Tun said. He insisted that the Hanthawaddy project would go ahead, with the four original bidders asked to resubmit proposals under the new financial arrangements by April 22.

 

(Source: AFP)