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Merdeka Building 118 was finally officially opened by the Yang di-Pertuan Agong, Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri'ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah Shah yesterday. With this it becomes the second tallest building in the world with a height of 678.9 meters and has 118 floors. In comparison, the tallest tower in the world Burj Khalifa is 828 meters high and has 163 floors.
This also means that Merdeka 118 is the tallest building in Malaysia beyond Exchange 106 (453.6 meters) and the tallest in Asia surpassing Shanghai Tower (632 meters). Bangunan Merdeka 118 is owned by Permodalan Nasional Berhad (PNB) and it started construction in July 2014 and will be completed by the end of 2023. The construction process was delayed due to the pandemic causing it to open later than the initial date of 2022.
It has a floor area of 400,000 square meters which houses office space, shopping centers and even hotels. The construction cost is around RM5 billion. The shape of this building may look strange but this is because it took inspiration from the body of Tunku Abdul Rahman when he declared the independence of Malaya on 31 August 1957.