Jokowi says staff move to new Indonesia capital Nusantara may be delayed

JAKARTA – Indonesia may be forced to delay plans to relocate a first batch of civil servants to its beleaguered new capital, potentially casting further doubts on a project that remains behind schedule and is struggling to attract funding. 

Though the government initially planned to relocate more than 10,000 civil servants to its future capital Nusantara in September, President Joko Widodo acknowledged that this hinges on whether the project is ready.

“Still September, but it depends on the readiness of the capital,” Mr Widodo, more popularly known as Jokowi, told reporters in Nusantara on Aug 14. “We don’t want to force it, but if it’s not ready, we’ll postpone it.”

Shifting those relocation plans will add further questions over Indonesia’s ambitious new city, being built in a remote swathe of jungle in Borneo and more than 1,000km north-east of the current capital, Jakarta.

It would add to the project’s list of missed deadlines and woes that include slow construction and difficulties attracting foreign investor funding. 

South-east Asia’s largest economy is building Nusantara to reduce congestion in Jakarta and to spread the nation’s wealth – currently concentrated on the island of Java – more evenly among its more than 278 million citizens.

In an attempt to shore up confidence, Mr Widodo has been working in Nusantara since Aug 11,

holding a full Cabinet meeting in the area

. And Mr Prabowo Subianto, who will be sworn in as president in October, earlier this week said

he is committed to pursuing and completing the new capital

amid concern that he would instead focus on his own policy agenda. 

Mr Widodo said Mr Prabowo actually wants development to speed up. 

“I’ve told him Nusantara development will take 10, 15, 20 years.” Mr Widodo said. “He said ‘that’s not fast enough for me – I want four, five, six years’. It’s up to him.” BLOOMBERG