LETTER FROM BANGKOK
Farewell, Jakarta, congested and polluted to the depths of its bowels: Indonesia is going to have a new, green and high-tech capital, named Nusantara, a word taken from the Sanskrit meaning “archipelago”. As for Brasilia in the 1960s, or Naypyidaw, the new Burmese capital wanted by the generals, the idea is to move the administrative functions, the presidential palace and nearly 1.5 million civil servants there. And thus to decentralize, or rather “dejavanize”, the decision-making bodies of this archipelago country of 270 million souls and 8,000 inhabited islands.
Nusantara will be erected 2,000 kilometers from Jakarta, on the island of Borneo, in East Kalimantan, one of the four Indonesian provinces of this immense island, of which Malaysia and the sultanate of Brunei occupy the northern part. It will be inland, a two-hour drive from Balikpapan, a port city enriched by the hydrocarbon industry. Announced in 2019 by Indonesian President Joko Widodo after his re-election, then pushed into the background due to the Covid-19 crisis, the project for the new capital was approved in record time by Parliament, the month last.
A metropolis of 256,000 hectares
The former Javanese furniture maker, who was governor of Jakarta before being elected president in 2014, wants to make Nusantara the symbol of Indonesia’s transformation into a developed country, with the goal of achieving carbon neutrality by 2060. “We will use the capital Nusantara as a showcase, whether in terms of the environment, working methods, economic base, technology, as well as better quality health and education services”, recently declared Joko Widodo, during an investment forum organized by the Indonesian bank Mandiri. The administrative heart of Nusantara, i.e. 6,600 hectares, will be at the center of the future “Greater Nusantara”, a metropolitan area of 256,000 hectares called “national strategic zone” which will encompass Balikpapan, but also Samarinda, the capital of the province of East Kalimantan. and its cultural heart.
Nusantara will be built in phases, until 2045, at an estimated cost of 28 billion euros, which the State is likely to cover more than expected: in 2019, “Jokowi”, as the president is nicknamed, had promised to give pride of place to private investors, citing the strong interest in the project from Softbank boss, the Japanese Masayoshi Son, and Prince Mohammed Ben Zayed Al Nahyane, from Abu Dhabi. The Indonesian State thus hoped to settle only 19% of the bill. The Covid-19 having been there, the financial share of the State in major works has been reassessed at 50% on the website devoted to the new capital, before the information disappeared, reported the Japanese economic information site Nikkei Asia.
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