STRATEGIC ASSESSMENT, Taipei Indonesian Trade and Economic Office Chair Iqbal Shofwan confirmed that three Taiwanese companies disbursed investment funds totaling IDR15 trillion to assist Indonesia’s downstream mining industry, which includes nickel and coal. The Trade Ministry facilitated the signing of these two investment memorandums of understanding (MoU) between three Taiwanese companies and one Indonesian business actor.
President Jokowi broke ground for construction of several projects ranging from an airport, toll-road and hospital to a hotel in a planned new capital city, Nusantara. Jokowi will launch 10 projects worth $784 million (IDR12.5 trillion) during his visit this week to Nusantara, which Indonesia is building from scratch amid the jungles of Borneo island.
The 347-hectare airport is expected to be fully operational by December 2024, the president said, at a total cost of $263 million (IDR 4.2 trillion). Jokowi also inspected construction work on a 57-km (35-mile) toll road link to the coal hub of Balikpapan, which he expected could be used from June next year to cut travel time.
President Jokowi called on the Nusantara Capital Authority (OIKN) to prioritize domestic investors for the construction of several facilities and infrastructure in the IKN Central Core Government Area. The president said he is putting the brakes on foreign investment in the development as he wants to prioritize domestic investors to participate in the development of IKN.
President Jokowi has reiterated that the development of the new national capital (IKN) of Nusantara will continue even after a shift of power in government post the general elections. On the sidelines of a working visit to the site of Nusantara’s development in North Penajam Paser, East Kalimantan, he highlighted that the development of Indonesia’s future capital has been laid down by law.
He emphasized that the project has been enshrined in a law supported by 93 percent of the party factions in the House of Representatives (DPR), dismissing public concerns that it would be halted.
President Jokowi at the groundbreaking ceremony for a Bank Indonesia (BI) complex at new national capital (IKN) Nusantara, East Kalimantan said he believes that a BI office in IKN Nusantara could bolster the confidence of the business sector and investors in Indonesia.
In an article published on Oct. 27, Time magazine highlighted the Nusantara capital city (IKN) as a symbol of President Jokowi’s legacy. According to Time, Jokowi’s administration will be remembered as a new era of democratic decline after nearly ten years in power. According to Sulfikar Amir, professor of sociology at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, the election of the IKN authority chair appointed by the president was a setback to democracy.
According to the magazine, politics lecturer Ian Wilson from Australia’s Murdoch University, IKN is a project that represents Jokowi’s escape from failure to deal with problems in Jakarta such as congestion, flooding, and pollution. Time even compared the Naypyidaw government center, Myanmar’s capital, which was built in 2005 by the military regime to protect Myanmar’s state leaders from rebellion.
President Jokowi has assured investors and critics that plans to set up a new capital city, Nusantara, in East Kalimantan will not be undone by the next elected government. Singapore tops the list in the number of foreign investors that have signed “letters of intent” on projects in the city, followed by Japan, Malaysia, China, and South Korea.
Jokowi said that political events could not change the direction of the country’s strategic development plan, and that this has been proven since Indonesia held its first direct presidential election in 2004.
