Over 90 percent of lawmakers voted in approval of a government proposal to build the first phase of the Long Thanh International Airport in the southern province of Dong Nai, which includes one runway and one terminal with a capacity of 25 million passengers and 1.2 million tonnes of cargo a year.

The approval means the government can pick an investor for the project. It has expressed its preference for using the state-owned Airports Corporation of Vietnam, which manages 21 airports, for this position.

However, the National Assembly has demanded that the investor uses its own funds and that the government not guarantee any loan taken for the project, so as to not increase public debt.

Investment in the first phase of Long Thanh is set to cost almost VND111.69 trillion ($4.8 billion). Construction is scheduled to begin in 2021 and be completed in 2025.

After all three phases of the airport are completed by 2050 at a total cost of VND336.63 trillion ($16 billion), it will be able to handle 100 million passengers a year, picking up overflow from the Tan Son Nhat International Airport in Ho Chi Minh City, which is currently operating at far above its designed capacity.