Construction of Cambodian bourse to begin in Dec

By Ek Madra

PHNOM PENH, Oct 31 (Reuters) - Cambodia expects to begin construction in December on its first stock exchange, a government official said, giving momentum to a long-delayed joint venture with South Korean investors.

'We expect to have the ground-breaking ceremony in December,' Mey Vann, director of the financial industry department at Cambodia's Ministry of Economy and Finance, told Reuters.

The idea of a Cambodian stockmarket has been floated since the 1990s but has struggled for traction in a country known for chronic poverty and a history of upheaval, including the Khmer Rouge 'Killing Fields'.

Cambodian authorities have partnered with private South Korean developer World City Co Ltd to build a $6 million, four-storey stock exchange on the waterfront of a new financial district, Cambodian and World City officials have said.

The area where the stock exchange will be built is flooded swampland on the edge of Boeung Kak Lake in the heart of the Phnom Penh. The end of the rainy season this month will clear the way for workers to begin building the exchange on the corner of what developers are calling Phnom Penh Boulevard.