A 555-metre tower planned for Diamond Island is to go ahead, and expert engineers from China and Vietnam are studying the river bank and calculating the strength of the foundations needed to support the building.

The building plan will not be changed and now the company is studying the site before setting a clear deadline to start constructing, according to Keo Sothy, assistant to deputy CEO of builders OCIC.  “When the Diamond Tower will be built, it will become a part of the promotional beauty of Phnom Penh and will become one of the highest buildings in the world as well,” he said.

“We have the building plan and its interior design already, including restaurants, office buildings, hotels and 5-star-luxury accommodation. The building will have more than 100 floors when completed,” he said.

“Placing stone into the river to make the river bank to support the building has started in 2012 and professional engineers from China and Vietnam are studying this project,” he said.

Keo Sothy did not specify how many cubic metres of stone will be placed into the river to support this kind of building, but says it will be a “huge amount.”

The Diamond Tower building project will be 555 metres high, and was the subject of a surprise announcement by Prime Minister Hun Sen.

Touch Samnang, project manager of OCIC’s Diamond Satellite City of OCIC, previously told the Post the building will be completed in 2017, after the company’s Riviera project is completed.

The Diamond Tower will be built on the same line running between the Independence Monument and the Chuon Nat statue.

“The project has received a lot of attention from investors but the success of this project depends on the management,” Kuy Vat, President &CEO of VTrust Group said.

“If we look in general, we congratulate the project, but the challenges are when our country is in the developing stage and if we have such a high building, whether we are able to maintain it, repair it,” Cheng Kheng, director of the CPL real estate company and president of Cambodian Valuers and Estate Agents Association said.

In the developed countries when there are fires in high buildings, they are difficult to control and it is an immediate problem in our country, he said.

“In the near future, Cambodia will be economically integrated into the ASEAN region. If we compare Cambodia with other countries, Cambodia has very few skyscrapers while Singapore has a population of more than 5 million people, Singapore has thousands of skyscrapers so the construction of this building will not be a problem for the real estate markets,” he said.

“When we have economic integration, the investors and the rich alike always want a change in their workplace, investment areas and places to live. They always show their superiority if they have a home or office building which is most prominent,” he said.

“So far we have not received any requests related to the construction of this building yet,” Long Dimanche, a Phnom Penh municipal spokesperson said, adding that, if the building project is successful, it will show that investors have faith in economic growth in Cambodia.

“The building construction is good for the promotion of Phnom Penh’s beauty, to reflect the new style, although our city is a little bit old. However, all the buildings must comply with technical standards,” he said.