Indonesia has chosen the eastern edge of jungle-clad Borneo island for its new capital, President Joko Widodo said Monday, as the country looks to shift its political heart away from congested megalopolis Jakarta.
Indonesia wants to move its capital from congested Jakarta to a new purpose-built city in East Kalimantan
The proposed location — near the regional cities of Balikpapan and Samarinda — is in the geographical center of the Southeast Asian archipelago and an area where the government already owns some 180,000 hectares of land, he added.“As a large nation that has been independent for 74 years, Indonesia has never chosen its own capital,” Widodo said in a televised speech.
“The burden Jakarta is holding right now is too heavy as the center of governance, business, finance, trade, and services,” he added.He said the estimated cost of the project was around 466 trillion rupiahs .The megacity — first established by Dutch colonists nearly 500 years ago — of is one of the fastest-sinking cities on earth, with environmental experts warning that one-third of it could be submerged by 2050 if current rates continue.
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