The Vietnamese province of Dong Nai has unveiled a 21,000-hectare masterplan for the area around the $10-billion Long Thanh international airport.
The plan includes 5,000 hectares for the airport itself, and 4,400 for industrial parks, a transport interchange and landscaped areas.
Another 5,000 hectares are earmarked for hotels and staff accommodation, with the remainder set aside for agriculture.
The area around the airport will also include hospitals to cater for "medical tourists", as well as research laboratories and sports centres.
The area will be linked to Ho Chi Minh City by high-speed rail and roads.
Ho Chi Minh City’s new international airport
Long Thanh will be situated about 40 kilometres north east of Ho Chi Minh City.
Work on its first phase is due to start in 2015 with a completion date of 2020.
A further two phases will run until 2030, after which it is envisaged that the airport will have four runways and terminals, and an annual capacity of 100 million passengers.
This would make it larger than Heathrow Airport, which presently handles about 70 million travellers a year.
The Vietnamese government has said that the airport is intended to challenge Suvarnabhumi Airport in Thailand and Changi in Singapore as the international hub of southeast Asia.
