USAID Administrator Samantha Power, US Ambassador to Vietnam Marc Knapper, and Senior Lieutenant General Hoang Xuan Chien, Deputy Minister of National Defense, jointly announced a new contract worth $73 million to remediate and clean up soil at Bien Hoa Airport.

Under the contract announced today, Nelson Environmental Remediation USA will design, construct, and operate a treatment facility to clean up dioxin-contaminated soil and sediment at the airport. Phase 1 will treat more than 100,000 cubic meters of soil and sediment out of a total of approximately 500,000 cubic meters contaminated with dioxin.

The Bien Hoa airport dioxin remediation project began in April 2019 and is expected to last 10 years with a total cost of 450 million USD. To date, the US government has contributed 163.25 million USD out of the total 300 million USD expected to be contributed to this project. The project is nearly 4 times larger in scale than the dioxin remediation project at Da Nang airport completed by USAID and the Vietnamese Ministry of National Defense in 2018.

USAID and Vietnam Ministry of National Defense officials also jointly inaugurated a park at the event site. The park was jointly developed by USAID and the Vietnam Air Defense - Air Force, Ministry of National Defense, with support from the US Department of Defense, to mark this important milestone in the Vietnam - US cooperation relationship.

At the handover ceremony, USAID officially handed over the park land to the Vietnamese Ministry of National Defense. This is the first area of ​​Bien Hoa airport to be handed over to the Vietnamese Ministry of National Defense after dioxin treatment.

“Our two countries’ efforts at reconciliation will forever serve as a powerful lesson to the rest of the world about what can be achieved when we move forward together as trusted friends, not enemies. Let us redouble our efforts to ensure that our bilateral partnership grows stronger and more resilient in the next 27 years and beyond,” Ambassador Knapper said.

Also attending today's event were US Consul General to Vietnam Susan Burns, USAID Country Director in Vietnam Aler Grubbs, USAID Deputy Director for Asia Craig Hart and Chairman of Dong Nai Provincial People's Committee Cao Tien Dung.

In December 2022, USAID also awarded a $29 million contract to a Vietnamese company to construct key preparatory works at Bien Hoa Airport. This is the largest contract USAID Vietnam has ever awarded to a local company. USAID is committed to enhancing Vietnam’s expertise in environmental health and safety.