National spirit: Vendors waiting for customers to sell decorations in the Indonesian national flag colours of red and white in Jakarta. Prabowo and Jokowi are inspecting Nusantara ahead of the Independence Day celebrations scheduled to be held at the area on Aug 17. — AFP
President-elect Prabowo Subianto said he is committed to “continue, and if possible finish” the new capital, dispelling uncertainty as to whether the incoming leader will abandon the multibillion-dollar project of his predecessor to pursue his own policy agenda.
Prabowo, who will be sworn in as the country’s eighth president in October, estimated that the new capital will be “functionally running” in four to five years, he told reporters on Monday on the sidelines of a visit to the new capital city called Nusantara.
He and incumbent President Joko Widodo are inspecting the new capital ahead of the Independence Day celebrations scheduled to be held at the area on Aug 17.
Some political observers and economists have questioned whether Prabowo will continue the new capital project given that his focus will be to allocate funding towards his welfare policies.
Jokowi, as the leader is known, also led his first-ever full Cabinet meeting in the new capital later on Monday.
He brought dozens of top-ranking officials including Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati for the meeting in the new city, built inside the Borneo jungle and over 1,200km northeast of Jakarta.
He has been trying to quell doubts over the US$35bil (RM156bil) project’s future ever since the new capital’s chief resigned in June.
With slow progress and no binding foreign investment, Jokowi ramped up site visits and pushed out new policies to build as much as possible before his term ends.
Jokowi had invited local celebrities and led a smaller cabinet meeting in Nusantara in July, when he also for the first time used the office and slept at the new presidential palace.
This time around, he’ll stay over for three days, fly back to Jakarta to deliver a major speech on Aug 16, then fly again to Nusantara for Independence Day.
Meanwhile, Indonesia had to drastically scale back its Independence Day celebrations planned for its future capital because of challenges providing food and accommodation in the remote location.
Organisers are now only inviting 1,300 people to travel to Nusantara, down from initial plans for 8,000 guests, Jokowi said in a speech to break ground for a convention centre in the new capital.
That’s the third reduction in the official guest list, though officials are going to open the event to thousands of local residents – who won’t require hotel rooms, he said on Monday.
Despite Jokowi’s visits, Nusantara is not yet legally the nation’s capital until the president issues a decree transferring the status from Jakarta. — Bloomberg
