DigitalCFO Newsroom | 19 January 2022
Following the plans to relocate Indonesia’s capital, President Joko Widodo has chosen to name it ‘Nusantara’.
On Monday, August 26, 2019 — President Joko Widodo stated that East Kalimantan would be the site of Indonesia’s new capital. However, the COVID-19 epidemic had pushed the plan to the back burner. The necessity for a relocation was mentioned by President Joko Widodo as a result of Jakarta’s chronic traffic, pollution, overpopulation, and coastal flooding issues, as well as the need for a new economic driver away from Java.
The name of Indonesia’s future capital city will be ‘Nusantara,’ according to the country’s House of Representatives, which passed a law on Tuesday relocating the government from Jakarta to a location on the island of Borneo. President Joko Widodo, according to National Development Planning Minister, Suharso Monoarfa, recommended the name.
The minister added that selecting the name ‘Nusantara’ is unsurprising as it has been a well-known term for a long time.
“It is iconic internationally, easy and it describes the archipelago of the Republic of Indonesia,” Monoarfa said, adding, “And I think we all agree with the name Nusantara.”
The new capital city will be built in East Kalimantan province’s North Penajam Paser and Kutai Kertanegara districts. The new capital will stand as the government’s seat of power, but Jakarta, Indonesia’s largest economy and home to more than 10 million people, will continue to be the country’s business and economic hub.
A session of a House special committee streamed live on YouTube late Monday night (Jan 17) night revealed MPs agreeing that the move does not have to begin in the first half of 2024, as was originally planned ahead of Widodo’s presidency ending later that year. The president, who took office in 2014, is barred from standing for a third term under the country’s constitution.
Lawmakers also decided to use state funds to help subsidize the move, spreading the expense over ten years. The government had predicted that the project would cost 466 trillion rupiah ($32.5 billion), but that estimate has not been revised since the outbreak of COVID-19 began.
Source: Xinhua & Nikkei Asia
