That is the content of the proposal to adjust the investment policy of the Long Thanh International Airport project (Long Thanh airport) signed by the Minister of Transport, authorized by the Prime Minister, on behalf of the Government, and submitted to the National Assembly on November 6.

Specifically, regarding the scale of investment, the Government proposed that the National Assembly adjust the investment policy of the Long Thanh airport project to build runway number 3 in phase 3 right in phase 1 so that this airport can exploit two runways in phase 1.

The Government proposed that the National Assembly adjust the completion time and put into operation of phase 1 of Long Thanh airport to the end of 2026 at the latest instead of 2025.

The third adjustment is that the Government proposes that the National Assembly allow the Government to organize the approval of the feasibility study report to adjust phase 1 of the project according to its authority without having to report to the National Assembly for approval.

According to the Government's explanation, at the time of approving the investment policy for the Long Thanh airport project, determining the investment capital for phase 1 was still difficult, so the National Assembly decided that phase 1 would only build one runway on the north side of the airport.

Phase 2 will build an additional runway number 2 in the south of the airport and phase 3 will build two additional runways in the north (runway number 3) and in the south (runway number 4).

However, during the implementation of phase 1 of the project, Vietnam Airports Corporation realized that building runway 3 400m north of runway 1 (under investment) to exploit two runways in phase 1 would bring more benefits.

Firstly, if Long Thanh airport operates two runways, Tan Son Nhat airport will not have to support Long Thanh airport when this airport's runway has problems.

The construction of runway 3 together with runway 1 will not interrupt the operation of runway 1 when connecting technical infrastructure.

Thirdly, the runway 3 foundation has been leveled to ensure clearance for runway 1, so the investment cost for runway 3 is only about 3,304 billion VND, not exceeding the total investment of component project 3 of Long Thanh airport phase 1, but increasing the airport's operating capacity when there are two runways.

Regarding the reason why Phase 1 of Long Thanh Airport cannot be completed in 2025 but must be extended until the end of 2026, the Government said that the project implementation process encountered some difficulties such as: the architectural competition period was prolonged; the COVID-19 pandemic affected the progress of technical design and mobilization of foreign experts.

The passenger terminal construction package had to go through two rounds of bidding before a contractor could be selected; some aviation service works under component project 4 were delayed in implementation because this was the first time bidding was conducted to select an investor, so there was confusion and legal regulations had to be amended.