THE Ministry of Finance is set to ink a long-awaited deal this month or next with South Korean developer World City to build a US$6 million, four-storey stock exchange in Phnom Penh.

Mey Vann, director of the ministry’s financial industry department, said no exact date had been set, but that “we want to do it this month”.

Kheng Ser, assistant to World City Vice President Duk-Kon Kim, the developer of the $2 billion Camko City satellite city to the north of Phnom Penh’s Boeung Kak lake, also said the signing was expected to take place this month, but he acknowledged that it could still be delayed until November.

“We don’t know the date yet,” he said. “Now we are waiting for answer from the Ministry of Finance to clarify the date, and that will depend on them,” he said.

Architectural plans for the building are still to be finalised after ministry officials sent the initial plans back for modifications in July for not being Khmer enough.

The revised plans were due to be signed by the end of September, but Mey Vann said the new plans are still being modified “a little bit”.

The building is expected to take eight months to complete once the green light is given. A further three months will then be needed to test electronic equipment on-site before the building can open, Duk-kon Kim previously told the Post.

The launch of the new bourse has been repeatedly pushed back, and officials are now reluctant to say when it will open. It was initially slated to launch September 9, but that was revised to “before the end of the year” as that date approached. It is now widely expected that the bourse will not be launched until late 2010.