The U.S. Export-Import bank has given Vietnam Airlines preliminary approval for a $400 million loan to help purchase four Boeing 787 airliners, the U.S. Embassy announced Wednesday.
In a separate announcement, South Korea has decided to buy four early warning surveillance planes from the Boeing Co. for a total of about $1.6 billion, both sides said Wednesday.
With tourism to Vietnam booming and more Vietnamese traveling overseas, the state-owned airline has ambitious expansion plans. It transports 6.5 million passengers a year and expects to carry 11 million people a year by 2015.
To meet the growing demand, the company plans to double its fleet to 86 planes by 2015. In addition to four Boeing 787 Dreamliners, it has ordered 10 Airbus aircraft, the first of which are expected to arrive later this year.
The U.S. Export-Import Bank helps finance the sale of U.S. exports by providing loans and other assistance, usually to developing countries. The bank financed the purchase of four Boeing 777 airliners for Vietnam Airlines in 2003 and 2004.
In Korea, Seoul selected the Boeing 737 in August as the only preferred model for its Airborne Early Warning and Control System aircraft project. The two sides have since negotiated the price.
The exact price was not known. Boeing said it was about $1.6 billion. An official with South Korea’s Defense Acquisition Program Administration who is in charge of the project said it was about 1.6 trillion won, or $1.7 billion.
A formal contract will be signed later this month, and the planes will be delivered by 2012, the defense procurement agency said in a statement. Boeing said the delivery of the first plane is scheduled for 2011.
The planes use sophisticated radar systems for airborne surveillance and for coordinating the flights of fighter jets.
The planes give South Korea “a powerful capability for airborne surveillance, communications and battle management,” Jim Albaugh, president and CEO of Boeing Integrated Defense Systems, said in a statement.
“It also provides increased security for the Korean peninsula against today’s threats and those in the future,” he said.
South Korea faces North Korea across the world’s most heavily fortified border. The two sides are still technically at war because the 1950-53 Korean War ended in a truce, not a peace treaty.
South Korea also wants to bolster its defense capabilities before an envisioned takeover of wartime control of its military from the United States by 2012. Control now is exercised by American officers leading a joint headquarters system.
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