STRATEGIC ASSESSMENT. Nusantara Capital (IKN) Authority Chair Bambang Susantono on Monday said there would be a financial center in the new capital city in East Kalimantan. The financial center at IKN will be modeled after the Chinese city of Shenzhen.
IKN Authority Deputy Agung Wicaksono said that currently the IKN Authority, the Financial Services Authority (OJK), state-owned bank association Himbara, together with the Shenzhen delegation are holding discussions to realize the big dream of actualizing a financial center in the new capital.
Clarifying presidential candidate Anies’ stance on IKN, a spokesperson for the campaign said Anies is not rejecting Nusantara but instead wants to “perfect” the proposal. According to Bestari, Anies will establish four teams for his 100-day program, one of which reportedly involves evaluating the IKN Law.
Former West Java governor Ridwan Kamil met President Jokowi at the Merdeka Palace previously to discuss his appointment as the curator of infrastructure for the Nusantara Capital City (IKN) project. Ridwan said he had given Jokowi several suggestions regarding improvements to the project, some of which are already under way. Next week, Ridwan will join Jokowi to review the construction, with the former saying that around 10 to 12 projects will commence with groundbreaking ceremonies.
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) was announced that it has provided technical assistance for the Nusantara capital city (IKN) worth $2.4 million (around IDR37.22 billion) so far, funded through various resources managed by ADB. ADB Director for Indonesia Jiro Tominaga at ADB’s Year-End Media Briefing in Indonesia disclosed that the technical assistance focused on three pillars, namely planning and design, impact mitigation, and financing mobilization.
European defense technology company Thales is hopeful about opportunities for smart city development in Indonesia’s new capital being built on the island of Borneo, the company’s president director for the Southeast Asian country, told Nikkei Asia, a project with “opportunities” of as much as $300 million. Thales and the Indonesian new capital city authority have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) “for strategic cooperation” regarding a smart city in Nusantara. The MOU says they “will strengthen the cooperation between the two parties in the development of smart city concepts, including digital identity, traffic management of unmanned aircraft systems, cybersecurity and data centers.”
OIKN Deputy Agung Wicaksono said there were 9 new companies that would enter IKN starting next year. All of them will initiate housing construction using the public-private partnership scheme. Three of these companies come from abroad, namely Citic Construction from China and Maxim and IJM from Malaysia. Half of the number of projects they will work on have reached the feasibility study phase. Meanwhile, the other six are domestic companies.
Indonesia’s President Joko Widodo first touted the prospect of moving the country’s capital away from the packed streets of Jakarta in 2017. The search for a location began, with a site in East Kalimantan, part of Borneo, eventually being chosen.
Building a brand-new city from the ground up, fit for the needs and challenges of modern life, is a fascinating — and very ambitious — prospect. Yet, with an estimated planning cost of $35bn, considerable work needs to be done to get the project over the finish line, especially with general elections looming in 2024 which could see the incumbent government lose power.
