The tourism unit of Vietnam’s leading realty conglomerate Vingroup has been chosen as the contractor for an international passenger seaport on Phu Quoc Island off the southern Vietnamese province of Kien Giang, a local official confirmed Wednesday.

The Phu Quoc Tourism Investment and Development JSC will build the VND1.64 trillion (US$76.61 million) Phu Quoc International Passenger Port under the BOT (build-operate-transfer) scheme, Huynh Vinh Lac, chief of the secretariat of the Kien Giang administration told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper.

Phu Quoc Island, the largest island in Vietnam, is a district administered by Kien Giang.

In late February Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung gave the go-ahead for the province’s administration to select the contractor for the project, which will be able to harbor ships carrying 5,000-6,000 passengers plus cargo container vessels.

In the BOT framework, the developer receives a concession from the private or public sector to finance, design, construct and operate a facility for a certain period, during which it has to raise the finances for, and is entitled to retain all revenues generated by, the project. The facility will be then transferred to the public administration at the end of the concession agreement.

The Vingroup unit is required to transfer the port to Kien Giang 30 years after the facility is open to passengers, Lac said.

The contractor will cover VND493 billion ($22.98 million), or 30 percent, of the total investment, whereas the remaining will be funded by the state capital. The state coffers will earmark VND477 billion ($22.23 million) for the project, and Kien Giang, VND674 billion ($31.41 million).

The Kien Giang transport department is the project developer, and will oversee the use of the state investment.

The Phu Quoc passenger port will be located on a 180-hectare land plot in Duong Dong Town. Completion is scheduled for 2017.

Phu Quoc is the largest island in the Southeast Asian country, measuring 589.23 km² in area, according to the website of the district.

Its population reached 93,000 people in 2010 with a density of 158 people per km², the website says.

Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has approved a plan to develop Phu Quoc into a special administrative-economic region administered by the central government by 2020, the website adds.

Kien Giang now eyes the arrival of 1-1.2 million visitors to the island in 2015, and 2-3 million tourists in 2020, with gross revenue amounting to $771 million by then.

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