The airport in the central province of Thanh Hoa, 190 kilometers to the south of Hanoi, will have an annual capacity of 5 million passengers when it turns international. It will be used for both civilian and military purposes and be able to receive wide-body aircraft like the Boeing B747 and Airbus A350-900.

A new runway and a second terminal will be built and the existing one, with a capacity of 1.2 million passengers a year, will be upgraded.

A cargo terminal will also be built for the airport to receive 27,000 tonnes of cargo a year.

Thanh Hoa, the third most populated locality in the country behind Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi, reported economic growth of 17 percent last year against the country’s 7 percent.

The government wants to make it an industrial province, developing the oil refining and petrochemicals, garment, footwear, cement, agriculture and fisheries sectors