Indonesia’s Widodo delays move to new capital, amid Prabowo’s potential shift on Nusantara

President Joko Widodo’s decision to delay relocating Indonesia’s capital casts doubts on the project that is behind schedule, and struggling to find investment

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Indonesia’s President Joko Widodo said his plan to move his office to the country’s new capital city has been delayed, adding doubts on the US$32 billion dollar Nusantara project’s viability. Photo: Reuters

Published: 12:30pm, 17 Jul 2024Updated: 4:08pm, 13 Aug 2024

President Joko Widodo has delayed relocating his office to Indonesia’s new 500 trillion rupiah (US$32 billion) planned capital city, citing missed deadlines for critical infrastructure, in a move observers say signals that development on his legacy project is significantly behind schedule.

Widodo last month said he would start working from the new capital – Nusantara – in July, hoping to restore confidence in the costly megaproject plagued by delays and insufficient funding.

“If the water is ready, if the electricity is ready, if the place is ready, we will move there,” Widodo told reporters last week. “I have received a report that [Nusantara] is not yet ready.”

The delay has cast fresh doubts on the project, highlighted last month when two top officials overseeing the development of Nusantara suddenly resigned.

Widodo’s vision for this new capital involves transforming 2,560 sq km of land in East Kalimantan on the island of Borneo into a functional new green smart city over the next 25 to 30 years.

Initially, there were plans to relocate 12,000 civil servants to the new capital by September, but have been delayed twice as the government struggles to build the required infrastructure. Indonesia still plans to hold its Independence Day celebrations on August 17 in Nusantara.