Malaysia completes Merdeka tower cone

[KUALA LUMPUR] Malaysia on Tuesday completed the tower spire of the building that's set to become the world's second-tallest skyscraper.

The Merdeka 118 will reach a height of 678.9 meters when completed in 2022, the tallest structure after the Burj Khalifa in Dubai. The project will be an economic catalyst for the capital city of Kuala Lumpur, Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob said at a ceremony on Tuesday.

The development comes just as a new Covid-19 variant prompted Malaysia's government to pause the transition to the endemic phase of the outbreak until it obtains more data on the strain. Malaysia and Singapore on Monday opened land and air vaccinated travel lanes, with plan to further reopen their borders.

The project also attracted criticism on social media, with some users questioning the need for another skyscraper at a time when the economy is recovering from the protracted lockdowns imposed for most of this year. Malaysia is home to the world's tallest twin structures, the Petronas Twin Towers.

The Merdeka 118 project, valued at US$1.2 billion, will open to the public in the final quarter of 2022, according to its owner Permodalan Nasional.

The tower will house the first Park Hyatt Hotel in Malaysia and the highest observation deck in Southeast Asia in addition to a mall, a museum and a mosque, according to PNB, the country's top asset manager.

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PNB awarded the project to a group of South Ko­rea's Sam­sung C&T Corp. and Malaysia's UEM Group in 2015. Samsung C&T helped build the Petronas Towers and the Burj Khalifa.

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