Singapore consortium back in running for Myanmar airport

[DagonKhan]

Feb 4 (Reuters) - A consortium including Singapore's Changi Airport Planners and Yongnam Holdings Inc has been invited by the government of Myanmar to re-enter negotiations to build and operate a new international airport in the country.

In August a consortium led by South Korea's Incheon International Airport Corp was named as the preferred bidder to build Hanthawaddy International Airport, but those discussions have since broken down according to a person familiar with the matter.

Yongnam said in a statement that its consortium, which also includes Japan's JGC Corp, has been asked by Myanmar's Department of Civil Aviation to enter negotiations for a 30-year public-private partnership to build, run and maintain the airport. It was named in August as the back-up bidder to the Korean group.

The order was estimated in August to be worth around $1 billion and would oversee the construction of an airport near Yangon, Myanmar's old capital and commercial centre, that could handle an annual passenger capacity of around 12 million people.

(Reporting by Rachel Armstrong)

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/02/04/myanmar-airport-idUSL3N0L92AW20140204

It will be interesting to know why talks failed. I'm trying to recall who were announced as the runners up when it was first announced, was it Singapore?

[SeaVisionBurma]

Further update here: http://www.mmtimes.com/index.php/business/9493-new-airport-project-now-up-for-grabs.html

[onthemoon]

Today I heard officially from a Deputy Union Minister that the original winner of the tender for Hanthawaddy Airport has been disqualified "due to problems" (which he did not specify) and they are going ahead with the back-up winner.

[DagonKhan]

New bids force further delay for Myanmar airport work-official

YANGON, March 11 Tue Mar 11, 2014 2:52pm IST

(Reuters) - Work on the $1.1 billion Hanthawaddy International Airport in Myanmar faces additional delays because the four short-listed competitors for the job will have to submit new bids because of "a major change in project policy", a senior Transport Ministry official told Reuters.

"Our government has agreed to seek ODA (official development assistance) for implementing the project," the senior official told Reuters, asking not to be identified since he was talking to the media without authorization.

"So, to make the competition fair...we decided to invite the four short-listed bidders to send in their tenders again. The deadline is on April 22," he added. "Originally, the project was targeted to finish by 2018, but it would now take some more time."

In August a consortium led by South Korea's Incheon International Airport Corp was named as the preferred bidder to build Hanthawaddy International Airport, but those discussions were said to have broken down.

Other bidders include a consortium made of up Singapore's Changi Airport Planners, Yongnam Holdings and Japan's JGC Corp and a consortium made up of Vinci Airport of France and Taisei Corp of Japan.

The official said both Inchon and Yongnam had come up with suggestions on partially financing the project with development assistance and the government took that into consideration.

Located near Bago Town, the Hanthawaddy International Airport is about 60 miles (96 km) away from the International Airport in the commercial capital of Yangon.

Only three of about three dozen airports operating in Myanmar are considered international airports. Yangon International Airport is being upgraded and expanded and Mandalay International Airport is awaiting upgrades.

Spurred by political and economic reforms in the past few years, tourist arrivals to the country have almost exceeded the capacity of existing facilities in Yangon, Mandalay and the capital of Naypyitaw.

(Reporting by Aung Hla Tun; Editing by Matt Driskill)

http://in.reuters.com/article/2014/03/11/myanmar-airport-rebid-idINL3N0M82HL20140311

Moving goal posts, a well known phenomenon in Myanmar...