The Myanmar government and a consortium that includes the Japanese builder JGC Corp reached a broad agreement Saturday on a plan to construct a new airport on the outskirts of Yangon.
The consortium, which also includes Singapore's Changi Airport Group, is now a step closer to receiving a formal contract for the airport construction project, estimated to cost about US$1.5 billion.
In October 2014, Myanmar granted preferential negotiation rights for the project to the consortium.
The government plans to build the new Hanthawaddy international airport, with a capacity to handle up to 12 million passengers a year, in Bago region, north of the country's largest city. It hopes that about half of the total cost will be covered by the Japanese government's official development assistance.
The new airport is set to become operational in 2022, four years later than the initial plan.
Transport systems linking the new airport with Yangon also need to be prepared, prompting the Japan International Cooperation Agency to survey conditions to see whether it can offer help through overseas development assistance funds.
The new airport is intended to accommodate rapid increases in foreign visitors to Myanmar as it continues to open up to the world.
Myanmar welcomed nearly 5 million tourists last year and expects at least 7.5 million by 2020. Yangon International Airport has already surpassed its annual capacity of 2.7 million passengers, and there are plans to increase capacity to 3.8 million in the short term.