Back in 2008, a building named Gold Tower 42 was begun at a prime major intersection in Phnom Penh. Unfortunately the global economic crisis followed immediately and construction stopped in 2009. Building began again but stopped again in 2012. Then construction resumed in 2013 only to grind to a halt in March, 2017. Covered with green construction safety netting, a more appropriate name at this point is Green Stub 31, the number of floors that have been completed. Now the papers report that a company from Shenzhen, China has been hired to finish the building and the Chinese promise that will happen in 2019. We’ll have to see if the building actually reaches 42 floors and if that actually happens in 2019. The new company has just hung large red signs and banners on the empty shell so maybe there’s hope.
Until very recently a sign like this one would have been unthinkable in Cambodia where credit cards are not very common. Within the last five years or so, there were only one or two high-end hotels that would accept Visa and MasterCard and American Express. And even as a few other establishments began to accept cards, they did so with a 3% to 5% surcharge for their graciousness in allowing you to use your plastic. Today you will see more foreigners using credit cards, but for the most part they seem to be using them to make money withdrawals from their home bank accounts so they can then pay their bills here with cash.