Urgent investment needed in transport links to Long Thanh Airport in southern Vietnam

"It is unacceptable for passengers to spend up to three hours to travel from Long Thanh Airport to the International Financial Center in Thu Thiem, or four to five hours to the Ho Tram tourism complex during peak congestion," Vu said.

“Without swift investment in an effective transport network, we risk missing crucial development opportunities right at the gateway."

Shortest route is essential

Projects connecting Long Thanh Airport are extremely urgent and must be implemented comprehensively and swiftly.

As a national key project, Long Thanh International Airport is not only a critical transportation hub for Vietnam but also holds international significance.

Currently, while there are routes to the airport from various directions, they are not the most efficient in terms of travel time or convenience.

For instance, if Long Thanh and Tan Son Nhat airports are intended to complement each other functionally, most passengers will likely travel from Ho Chi Minh City to Long Thanh. 

The pressing question remains: what is the most effective route for this connection?

Long Thanh, which will be the country’s largest airport once completed, must be supported by a modern and seamless transportation system. 

Without this, the airport risks losing its strategic value and could become a new bottleneck.

Long Thanh is expected to be the first modern impression for international visitors to Vietnam.

Thus, beyond constructing a world-class airport, equal importance must be placed on swiftly developing a multimodal transport system connecting it to major urban, service, and industrial centers in the southern economic region.

For example, the Ho Tram tourism complex is being positioned to welcome a large influx of tourists, many of whom are international travelers attending conferences or large events.

For them, time is precious, and a four- to five-hour journey is simply unacceptable. 

They need to transition seamlessly from plane to high-speed rail or expressway to reach their destination in the shortest time possible.

Similarly, the Long Thanh–Thu Thiem railway is essential, as Thu Thiem is the headquarters of the planned international financial center in Ho Chi Minh City.

It will regularly host investors, financial experts, bankers, and tech professionals. 

Many may fly from regional financial hubs such as Singapore, Hong Kong, or Shanghai to Long Thanh, attend a meeting or event in Thu Thiem, and return the same day.

A three-hour transfer each way would break this critical connection.

There is also a vital need to develop rail freight lines for exports. 

Investments should be made in a railway network connecting Loc Ninh in Dong Nai Province to Long Thanh and the Cai Mep Port in Ho Chi Minh City, enabling fast cargo transport to and from airports and seaports.

Thus, the challenge is not just reaching the airport—it is about building a modern, efficient, and interconnected multimodal transport system for the entire region.

Choosing correct investment model

With active involvement from authorities and local governments, the road infrastructure, including expressways and regional ring roads, is being rapidly deployed and nearing completion.

This forms the strategic transportation framework linking economic zones with Long Thanh Airport and its surrounding urban areas.

However, expressways alone are not enough. Even the most modern highways will suffer from congestion if feeder roads from service centers and industrial zones are neglected.

Therefore, public-funded projects must be accelerated, while private sector resources should be mobilized through public-private partnerships.

It is crucial to utilize flexible mechanisms to assign projects to private investors quickly, ensuring alignment with Long Thanh Airport's scheduled completion.

In parallel with road development, railways for both passenger and freight transport must be launched simultaneously.

The most critical factor is choosing the right investment approach. A misstep could lead to major project delays, Vu noted.

Trust must be placed in private investors. As emphasized by Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh, there must be a clear distinction between investors and contractors.

Investors only need strong financial capacity and good project management skills. 

They can hire contractors or bring in international partners to execute the work. 

The investor could be a single company or a joint venture led by a domestic enterprise.

Investment models and capital recovery plans must be carefully calculated to ensure feasibility and avoid delays later.

Special attention should also be paid to localization rates to foster technology independence and develop the domestic rail industry, the expert added.

Vietnamese companies today have the capability to build metro lines and rail lines. What matters most is assigning the right tasks to the right parties, Vu said.

Ho Chi Minh City’s leadership has already expressed a clear commitment to attracting strategic investors to develop, operate, and maintain urban rail systems under the transit-oriented development model. The city is ready to assign projects that private investors can handle.

Pham Viet Thuan, director of the Ho Chi Minh City Institute of Economics Environmental and Resources, said that the Ho Chi Minh City – Long Thanh railway is an exceptionally urgent project, studied for years but still pending investment approval, even as Long Thanh Airport nears completion.

This highlights that the investment preparation process is still too time-consuming.

In many cases, the time required for procedures matches or exceeds construction time. A drastic reform in investment preparation is needed, aiming to cut timelines by 70–80 percent.

For the Long Thanh – Thu Thiem railway project, the investment model must be clearly defined soon. Given the urgency, the EPC (engineering–procurement–construction) model should be applied to ensure speedy implementation and avoid prolonged delays as seen in past projects, according to Thuan.

Ho Chi Minh City should establish at least three core state-owned infrastructure enterprises to execute key projects, particularly urgent packages, and help manage the massive infrastructure demands in the city.

The Long Thanh International Airport project, with an estimated investment of over VND336.63 trillion (US$12.93 billion), broke ground in January 2021 and is being developed in three phases.

Phase 1 is scheduled for inauguration in December 2025 and commercial operations are set to begin in early 2026.

Once phase 1 becomes operational, the airport, with one runway and one terminal, will be able to serve 25 million passengers and handle 1.2 million metric tons of cargo annually.

When all three phases are finished, likely after 2035, Long Thanh Airport is expected to have four runways and four terminals, with an annual capacity of 100 million passengers and five million metric tons of cargo.