RABAT, Nov. 1 (Xinhua) -- The Moroccan King Mohammed VI launched Thursday the construction of Mohammed VI Tower with a height of 250 meters, which set to become Africa's tallest skyscraper, according to the project holder BMCE bank.

The tower will consist of 55 floors with a luxury hotel, offices and apartments.

It will cost the Moroccan leading BMCE bank some 4 billion Moroccan dirhams (nearly 420 million U.S. dollars), the bank's CEO Othman Benjelloun said in a speech at the launching ceremony.

Benjelloun said that multidimensional preliminary studies have been conducted since March 2016.

He noted that the previous period was also an opportunity to strengthen the consortium of companies implementing this project by inviting one of the world's leading construction companies, the Belgian company BESIX, to join the China Railway Construction Corporation (International) Limited and the Moroccan company TGCC.

The tower will be the highlight of a large-scale project to develop the Bouregreg valley in Rabat, a key component of the 2014-2018 Integrated Development Program dubbed "Rabat, City of Light, Moroccan Cultural Capital."

The project also involves the construction of several innovative facilities, including the Grand Theater of Rabat, the Arts and Culture House, the National Archives of the Kingdom of Morocco and the Archaeological Museum.