Indonesia may be forced to delay plans to relocate a first batch of civil servants to its beleaguered new capital, potentially casting further doubts on a project that remains behind schedule and is struggling to attract funding.
Though the government initially planned to relocate more than 10,000 civil servants to its future capital Nusantara in September, President Joko Widodo acknowledged that this hinges on whether the project is ready.
“Still September, but it depends on the readiness of the capital,” Jokowi, as the leader is popularly known, told reporters in Nusantara on Wednesday. “We don’t want to force it, but if it’s not ready, we’ll postpone it.”
Shifting those relocation plans will add further questions over Indonesia’s ambitious new city, being built in a remote swathe of jungle in Borneo and more than a thousand kilometres northeast of the current capital, Jakarta. It would add to the project’s list of missed deadlines and woes that include slow construction and difficulties attracting foreign investor funding.
Southeast Asia’s largest economy is building Nusantara to reduce congestion in Jakarta and to spread the nation’s wealth – currently concentrated on the island of Java – more evenly among its more than 278 million citizens.
In an attempt to shore up confidence, Jokowi has been working in Nusantara since Sunday, holding a full cabinet meeting in the area. And Prabowo Subianto, who will be sworn in as president in October, earlier this week said he’s committed to pursue and complete the new capital amid concern that he would instead focus on his own policy agenda.
Jokowi said Prabowo actually wants development to speed up.
“I’ve told him Nusantara development will take 10, 15, 20 years.” Jokowi said. “He said, ‘that’s not fast enough for me – I want four, five, six years.’ It’s up to him.”
Indonesia has also drastically scaled back its August 17 Independence Day celebrations planned for its future capital because of challenges providing food and accommodation in the remote location.
Organisers are now only inviting 1,300 people to travel to Nusantara, down from initial plans for 8,000 guests, Widodo said.
That’s the third reduction in the official guest list, though officials are going to open the event to thousands of local residents – who won’t require hotel rooms, the outgoing Indonesian leader said on Monday.
The president, has championed the Nusantara project and made it a goal for the new city to host Indonesia’s Independence Day celebrations before he leaves office in October. But construction has been slow at the site.
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A fresh start: Why is Indonesia building a new capital?
A fresh start: Why is Indonesia building a new capital?
Organisers have already split events, which include cultural performances, flag-raising and military drills, between Jakarta and Nusantara due to capacity limits.
Still, the project got a boost this week when President-Elect Prabowo Subianto said he is committed to “continue, and if possible finish” the new capital, ending uncertainty as to whether he would abandon Jokowi’s multibillion-dollar project to pursue his own policy agenda.
Prabowo, who will be sworn in as the country’s eighth president in October, estimated that the new capital will be “functionally running” in four to five years, he told reporters at the future capital.
