CONSTRUCTION has still yet to begin on facilities for Cambodia’s planned stock exchange, nearly four months after the government inked a deal with South Korea’s World City Co.

The developer will build the stock exchange at its Camko City site in Phnom Penh’s Russei Keo District, but the government has yet to approve the “conceptual design”, World City Vice President Duk-Kon Kim said Tuesday.

“The construction cannot be started so far,” he said. “Now we are still discussing with the Finance Ministry on the construction design of the buildings.”

World City’s architects submitted a plan for the buildings, combining a traditional Khmer pagoda style with modern design elements, he said, but Finance Ministry officials “are taking time to finalise it”.

Officials say they want the stock exchange to begin trading at the end of the year, with three state-owned enterprises – Sihanoukville Autonomous Port, Phnom Penh Water Authority and Telecom Cambodia – preparing for their initial public offering.

If construction on the facilities can start next month, the project will be finished in time to open the exchange, Kim said.

Weather poses no problems

“Even though the rainy season comes, we can build the structures,” he said. “I think we have nine months remaining. That’s enough to complete [it] on time.”

Hong Sok Hour, general director of the Cambodia Securities Exchange, confirmed Tuesday that the government has yet to finalise and approve the design.

“We have to do some changes to [the design] to make it much better, because for the Cambodian Securities Building, we cannot just take it for granted,” he said.

Mey Vann, director of the Finance Ministry’s Financial Industry Department, declined to comment on the design approval.

However, he said work has begun on “soil enforcement” for the site.

“It’s gradually being done,” he said. “The impending rainy season is not a barrier for construction, because now construction technology is very sophisticated.”

Government finance officials have previously said that a temporary site might be required if the Camko City exchange building is delayed.