Indonesia picks East Kalimantan province for new capital

• Indonesia will build a new capital in the province of East Kalimantan on Borneo island, local media cited land planning minister Sofyan Djalil as said on 22 Aug 19
• President Joko Widodo during the week ending 16 Aug 19 formally proposed to parliament moving the capital from Jakarta, a crowded, polluted city of 10 million people, to somewhere in Kalimantan.
• The Indonesian side of Borneo has five provinces, known for their rainforests, orangutans and coal reserves.
• “Yes, East Kalimantan, but we don’t know where specifically,” Djalil was cited as saying by news website Detik.com, when asked if East Kalimantan had been selected as the site of the new capital.
• President Widodo, however, did not confirm the location of the new capital, Detik reported. He said he was still awaiting the findings from one or two studies.
• The government has 3,000 hectares of land in the province for the first stage of development, Djalil told local media.
• Bambang Brodjonegoro, the head of the national development planning agency, Bappenas, recently said that for better connectivity in the archipelago, the capital must be a port city.
• Moving the capital would cost about USD33bn, a price tag that includes new government offices and homes for about 1.5 million civil servants expected to pack up and start moving by 2024, according to Bappenas.

External Link : https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/asia/indonesia-picks-east-kalimantan-province-for-new-capital-media-11833374