Skyscraper complex project scales down in Phnom Penh

Special Report: Global Financial Crisis

PHNOM PENH, Nov. 26 (Xinhua) -- Blaming the global financial crisis, a major South Korean developer will dramatically reduce the scale of its proposed one billion U.S. dollars 7-skyscraper complex along the Tonle Bassac River to just three buildings at half the original price, national media said on Wednesday.

Ground was broken in June for the International Finance Complex(IFC) but construction on the site will be postponed more than one year, said Woo Mu-hion, chief of the business division in Cambodia for the project's developer and sole financer, the Seoul-based GS Construction and Engineering.

Construction was halted earlier this month, he was quoted by English-Khmer language newspaper the Cambodia Daily as saying.

"The market has changed. Due to such uncertainty, we think it is not clever to continue construction right now. We want to change our design, but we will maintain 52 storeys," he said.

The project will only include two 51-storey condominiums and a mixed-use 52-storey building, which will be the tallest in Cambodia, he said.

Construction on the complex could restart in early 2010, but first the company needs to redesign it and get government approval for the new plan, he added.