February 27, 2018
An agreement to design, build and manage a new $1.4
billion international airport in Myanmar has “expired,” according to a Yongnam
Holdings Ltd., a Singapore company participating in a consortium that includes
JGC Corp. of Japan.
Hanthawaddy International Airport was to have been
built around 80 kilometers north of Yangon, near the city of Bago, by 2022,
under a framework agreement signed in January 2016 between the consortium and
Myanmar’s Civil Aviation Department.
“The FWA has not been renewed to-date as certain
issues remain unresolved,” Yongnam Holdings said in a statement released Monday
night in Singapore, without elaborating.
In 2014, the consortium won a government tender for
the design, construction and management of Hanthawaddy International Airport on
the basis of a public-private partnership for a 30-year concessional period.
The consortium had won the tender on the basis it
would seek up to half of funding for the project from the
Japanese government’s official development assistance program.
JGC Corp. holds a 55 percent stake in the consortium
while Yongnam Holdings has 25 percent and Changi Airport Planners and
Engineers, a subsidiary of Changi Airports International, has 20 percent.
Apart from the local authorities fencing nearly half
of the 3,645-hectares-wide project area, construction has not begun for unknown
reasons.
Authorities have in the past said all international
flights would be moved to the new airport from the current one, Yangon
International Airport, which is at full capacity with 3 million passengers annually.
The new airport is expected to initially handle four
times that number of passengers, bringing about a boost in global air
connectivity for Myanmar, bolstering the flow of business and leisure travelers
as the country sees growth in trade and tourism industries.
Kyodo News
Ref; The Global New Light of Myanmar
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