Indonesia dismisses concerns over $32 bln capital city

A top Indonesian official pledged on Wednesday that construction on a new capital city deep within the jungles of Borneo island would not stall when the presidency changes hands next year as new incentives were unveiled to encourage investment.
Southeast Asia’s largest country will officially declare the city, called Nusantara, its new capital in the first half of 2024, the head of the Nusantara authority Bambang Susantono said during a visit to the site in Kalimantan in eastern Borneo.
He was speaking from Sepaku, a district within the capital where over 7,000 workers operating excavators and cranes were laying foundations for a new presidential palace in an area surrounded by eucalyptus forests for pulp and paper production.
Nusantara is President Joko Widodo’s flagship project and is envisioned as a green, smart city spanning nearly 260,000 hectares (642,474 acres) to replace the current overcrowded and rapidly sinking capital of Jakarta on Java island.