Workers checking on the exterior of the State Palace in Nusantara on Aug 16, 2024. - Antara
JAKARTA: The government has postponed the relocation of civil servants to the country’s future capital of Nusantara in East Kalimantan from its initial plan of this month, citing the need to complete the housing complexes and digital infrastructure first to ensure a smooth transition.
“It’s not just about moving offices, but also changing the work culture to a digital one, so the required infrastructure needs to be completed [prior to the relocation],” Administrative and Bureaucratic Reform Minister Abdullah Azwar Anas said on Tuesday (Sept 3) as quoted by Antara.
The minister revealed that parts of housing complexes for civil servants were ready for occupancy, but President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo had instructed him to postpone the relocation. Abdullah, however, did not specify the new timeline.
“We are still preparing for the [new relocation] scheme while waiting for the completion of the rest of the housing complexes”.
The government plans to build a total of 47 housing towers for civil servants in Nusantara, which are expected to be completed by November. Each tower will contain 60 units measuring 98sq m and featuring three bedrooms.
The government plans to move nearly 33,000 civil servants from crowded Jakarta to Nusantara, and the relocation process is to be conducted in three stages until 2029.
The first wave was initially scheduled this month, with around 12,000 participants. The second and third phases will see around 6,000 and 14,000 employees, respectively.
According to 2023 official data, the central government employs around 932,000 civil servants, and 21,000 non-permanent workers, about 20 per ent of whom are based in Jakarta.
President Jokowi himself has postponed his relocation to the future capital city several times since July this year due to sluggish infrastructure development.
Last month, the outgoing leader said he would wait for the airport to be up and running first. Jokowi said once he takes up office in Nusantara, he will need an airport nearby to ensure his mobility to various provinces.
“[Once I relocate], if I want to go to Papua, it should be [from the airport] in Nusantara. If I want to go to East Nusa Tenggara, it should be from Nusantara, and if I want to go to Aceh, it should also be from Nusantara,” he explained.
However, the President spent his first few nights at Nusantara’s Presidential Palace in late July.
The city also hosted the country’s Independence Day celebration on Aug 17, which was attended by around 1,300 official guests. - The Jakarta Post/ANN
