HANOI (Nikkei)--Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen has unveiled an ambitious plan to build Asia's tallest building, a structure that will, if it is built, stand taller than rivals in Shanghai and Kuala Lumpur.

The planned 555m skyscraper is expected to cost 200 million dollars. Hun Sen envisages it as one of the three tallest buildings in the world.

The Cambodian leader announced the plan in a speech at a university. He did not say where it would be built or who would undertake the project.

In the capital, Phnom Penh, Chinese and South Korean firms are carrying out development projects. The prime minister appears to be eyeing a partnership with a foreign firm for the grand project. But whether it would be viable remains to be seen, given the difficulty of raising finance in the wake of the economic slowdown.

Meanwhile, a unit of Vietnamese state-run oil company PetroVietnam plans to build a 528m high-rise in Hanoi that is slated for completion in 2014.

With tall buildings seen by many in the region as a symbol of national strength, the race to build ever taller towers is likely to heat up.