The Suharto regime intended Jakarta Tower to be the tallest structure in the world. International architecture design firms were invited to propose designs for the structure. The design itself should represent "Trilogi Pembangunan" (government's national development philosophy), "Pancasila" (the national philosophy, which consists of five factors), and August 17 (Indonesia's independence day). The winning design was created by Murphi/Iohn from the United States. However, since the design was too costly to develop, the government opted the runner-up design by East China Architecture Design & Research Institute (ECADI), who created the Shanghai Oriental Pearl Tower in China.