Anew shopping mall is being built on Phnom Penh's Street 214 by the BS Department

Store Company (BSDSC), with the hope that it will lift the company out of the red.

BS Marketing Project Manager Hem Meas said last week that the company's BS shopping

center on Monivong Boulevard has been operating for over a year, and although on

a typical weekend it sees between 200 and 400 customers, it is still not making a

profit. But he expects turnover to increase with the addition of the new mall on

Street 214.

Building the new complex is costing BSDSC $7 million, Meas said. Construction has

been under way for over a year and he said he could not estimate when it would be

completed.

The company has already begun publicizing the partly built mall with radio and TV

commercials, and promotions on public holidays.

"In future we want to develop more branches, and the 214 branch will be a test

to see how it goes," he said.

When the project is finished the new building will be seven floors high and four

of those will contain retail shops, as well as a BB World fast-food outlet and a

KBK supermarket.

"We focus on clothes, cosmetics and lotions, jewelry and restaurants,"

he said. "Our customers are middle-class and high-ranking people, because they

need high-quality products and don't care about price.

"But if you compare with Singapore, Thailand and other countries, our prices

are 10 percent cheaper."

The BS Department Store Company is owned by Cambodian businessman Ly Sen Kheang.