A Singapore construction company and an affiliate of Changi Airport Group has won a $1.4 billion order to build a new airport in Myanmar’s Yangon as the country repairs its infrastructure after the easing of decades of sanctions.
A consortium led by Yongnam Holdings Ltd, which includes Changi Airport Planners and Engineers and Japan’s JGC Corp, will develop the Hanthawaddy International Airport, Myanmar’s civil aviation agency said today. The group was invited to rebid for the project after negotiations between the government and South Korea’s Incheon International Airport Corp, which was previously given the deal, broke down earlier this year.
Upgrading the airport is part of the government’s effort to create jobs in one of Asia’s poorest countries.
The new Hanthawaddy airport is about 80 kilometres from Yangon. The current Yangon International Airport is 15 kilometres from the city. The new facility will be operational in December 2019 and will be able to handle as many as 12 million passengers a year compared with the current airfield’s capacity of 2.7 million, the civil aviation agency said.
The consortium can get official development assistance from the Japanese government with low interest rates, Win Swe Tun, director general of the Department of Civil Aviation, said at the press conference. The group didn’t ask for any government guarantee, he said.
Yangon’s existing airport opened a new terminal in 2007 for international travel, while a facility built in 1947 is used for domestic flights.
Myanmar may need to spend some $320 billion on infrastructure by 2030 to left economic growth to 8%, according to McKinsey Global Institute.
