Dubai plans to go ahead with plans to build the world’s largest shopping mall, however it would assess market demand before proceeding with the project’s later stages. The Mall of the World projects, encompassing 8 million square feet of shopping space connected to a theme park, 100 hotels and serviced apartment buildings with 20,000 rooms was announced in mid-2014. Ahmad bin Byat, vice-chairman and managing director of Dubai Holding which responsible for the project, said that they will be reacting to the demands of the market. The project is massive and complex and will have to be built in stages. Byat predicted it would still become the world's largest shopping destination, adding that the first phase - representing about a quarter of the project's size - would be completed before Dubai hosts the Expo 2020 exhibition. He estimated the total bill of the project would be nearly AED80 billion (USD22 billion) and that Dubai Holding would provide "just shy" of AED30 billion. The project would be funded through an equal split of his company's internal resources, institutional investors and debt. (Reuters)