Footage shows the construction of the new 'Emsphere' shopping mall in Bangkok, Thailand.

The 200,000 square metres mall, on the busy Sukhumvit Road in the centre of the Thai capital, is two years behind schedule due to the effects of government restrictions from the Covid-19 pandemic.

However, it is set to open in December 2023 with a 6,000-seat entertainment arena for live performances as well as shops and around 1,000 restaurants.

Developers The Mall Group said it had invested 15 billion baht in the facility, which they hope will attract between 80,000 to 100,000 visitors a day.

Chairman Supaluck Umpujh said: 'We poured a 500-million-baht budget into designing The Emsphere to have a new vibe for Bangkok.'

The Emsphere mall sits next to the Emquartier and Emporium malls in the Phrom Phong district of the city next to the Benchasiri Park.

Supaluck added: 'The Emsphere proved to be our most challenging project in our 40 years of experience in Thailand's retail business because we wanted to position each of the three malls to be fun for shoppers.'

Owners hope the new mall will contribute to the ongoing gentrification of Bangkok from a notoriously seedy nightlife destination with crumbling and chronically underfunded infrastructure to a world-renowned shopping destination alongside Paris, London, New York and Tokyo.