Construction has got underway of a Japanese-funded international terminal at Ho Chi Minh City's Tan Son Nhat airport to cope with increasing passenger traffic to Vietnam's southern business capital.
The ground-breaking ceremony for the 92,920-square metre (about a million square foot) complex took place on Friday and was attended by Prime Minister Phan Van Khai.
The terminal and a 78,000-square metre bus garage form part of a 219-million dollar project to upgrade and modernise the ageing airport complex in the communist nation's largest city. It is due for completion by 2006.
With the addition of the new terminal, Tan Son Nhat will have a capacity of up to 18 million passengers per year, state media said Saturday. Currently around six million people pass through the airport each year.
The Japan Bank for International Co-operation is providing a soft loan of around 184 million dollars to fund 85 percent of the project's total costs.
The actual construction is being carried out by a Japanese conglomerate composed of Kajima Co, Taisei Co, Obayashi Co, and Maeda Co.
Ho Chi Minh City, formerly known as Saigon, is one of the most popular stops on Vietnam's tourist trail.
Foreign arrivals in Vietnam jumped 29.6 percent in the first six months of this year despite the bird flu epidemic. According to the Vietnam National Tourism Administration, there were almost 1.4 million visitors in the period.
For 2004, the communist nation has set a target of 2.8 million tourists.