Vietnam tourism firm wants to build $58.83mn passenger port on Phu Quoc Island
Vietnam tourism firm wants to build $58.83mn passenger port on Phu Quoc Island
A travel company is seeking permission to develop a passenger port on Phu Quoc Island in the southern province of Kien Giang, to lure more international tourists to the famed resort island via sea travel.
Phu Quoc Tourism Investment and Development, a member of Vietnam’s leading realty developer, Vingroup, has called on the Ministry of Transport and the Kien Giang administration to allow it to develop the Phu Quoc passenger port.
The company said it will cover all of the investment costs for the port, estimated at VND1.25 trillion (US$58.83 million).
On October 23, a consultant board that had been set up to determine where the port should be located proposed that the facility be built in Duong Dong town, Ha Noi Moi (New) newspaper reported, citing the transport ministry.
The new facility will make use of the land plot left by an old airport in the town.
The proposal won support from the Kien Giang administration, which said the project is in accordance with the province’s plan for the island.
The Phu Quoc tourism company said it will develop the project under a mixed model between the BOT (build-operate-transfer) and BT (build-transfer) schemes.
In the BOT framework, the developer receives a concession from the private or public sector to finance, design, construct and operate a facility for a certain period, during which it has to raise the finances for, and is entitled to retain all revenues generated by, the project. The facility will be then transferred to the public administration at the end of the concession agreement.
Meanwhile, under a BT contract, the contractor finances the project upfront and is then repaid over a short timeframe.
Phu Quoc Co said it would seek to be repaid 70 percent of the investment under the BT model, and will recover 30 percent of the investment from revenues generated by the passenger port, or the BOT scheme.
Phu Quoc is the largest island in the Southeast Asian country, measuring 589.23 km² in area, according to the website of the district.
Its population reached 93,000 people in 2010 with a density of 158 people per km², the website says.
Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has approved a plan to develop Phu Quoc into a special administrative-economic region administered by the central government by 2020, the website adds.
Kien Giang now eyes the arrival of 1-1.2 million visitors to the island in 2015, and 2-3 million tourists in 2020, with gross revenue amounting to US$771 million by then.
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