A barge is anchored off a reclamation project in Jakarta Bay, part of the controversial National Capital Integrated Coastal Development (NCICD) that includes a seawall, in this undated file photo first published circa 2015-2016. - Jakarta Post
JAKARTA: President Prabowo Subianto has invited Japanese companies to take part in constructing a giant seawall spanning 600km that aims to address land subsidence along the northern coast of Java, according to Investment and Downstream Minister Rosan Roeslani.
The president made his pitch last Thursday at a meeting with a business delegation from the Japan-Indonesia Association at his offices in Jakarta, Rosan said in a statement.
Government officials previously signalled on multiple occasions that the country was unable to finance the entire project on its own, with the previous government estimating in January that the project’s final bill could reach up to US$60bil.
The Prabowo administration has been looking to woo investors willing to put their money in the project, even as it seeks to fund other costly priority programmes, including the president’s flagship free-meal programme.
Rosan said the potential cooperation with Japan would remain flexible and could involve business-to-business or government-to-government schemes, or a public-private partnership.
Further discussions on funding and other details of the proposed collaboration were expected to take place last Friday, when Prabowo was scheduled to meet business leaders from the Jakarta Japan Club, he said.
“We are open to various forms of cooperation. We hope these large Japanese companies will contribute to construction, engineering and of course, the funding,” said Rosan, who also heads the Investment Coordinating Board.
In October, businessman Hashim Djojohadikusumo, Prabowo’s brother, said companies from China, South Korea and the Netherlands had shown interest in the seawall project.
The initial phase of the project, estimated to cost 123 trillion rupiah or about US$7.7bil over eight years, is to build a 40km section spanning from Banten to Bekasi in West Java via Jakarta, Coordinating Infrastructure and Regional Development Minister Agus Harimurti Yudhoyono said last Sunday, Detik.com reported.
To help expedite the seawall’s development, Prabowo had asked that the project be included in the National Strategic Project (PSN) for 2025, Coordinating Economic Minister Airlangga Hartarto said in November.
The government grants favourable terms to projects listed on the PSN, including those related to land acquisition and permits.
The idea to build a giant seawall for Jakarta was first proposed in 1994 by then-president Soeharto.
Prabowo revived the concept while campaigning for the 2024 presidential election, emphasising the structure’s importance in mitigating coastal flooding and addressing Jakarta’s vulnerability to rising sea levels.
However, the project met with criticism from experts, who said a seawall would not solve land subsidence in Jakarta.
Many also pointed out that the government was overlooking more pressing man-made causes, such as deep groundwater extraction wells, the impact of the dead load of the city’s high-rises as well as industrial and port activities.
Critics also warned that building such a massive seawall could instead exacerbate land subsidence since it would only add to the existing infrastructure, which they said was the root cause of the issue. — The Jakarta Post/ANN
