Nusantara – New Capital City of Indonesia

August 19, 2023 By James Clark

Indonesia is planning to move its capital from Jakarta in Java to a new city
named Nusantara in East Kalimantan on the island of Borneo. The move is in
part to relieve pressure on traffic-clogged Jakarta, which is sinking, polluted
and crowded. A new capital city would also be a way of symbolically
centralising the government, which is seen as being too Java-centric.

The idea of moving the capital has been around since independence, with
president Soekarno (1945-1967) planning to move the capital to Palangkaraya
in Kalimantan. President Yudhoyono (2004-2014) also floated the idea.

The latest push to move the capital was proposed by President Jokowi shortly
after winning his second term in 2019. Indonesian presidents can only serve
two terms, and this costly and difficult project would have been too
controversial to run as a first-term election policy.

A number of locations were short-listed, including Palangkaraya in Kalimantan

(president Soekarno’s original choice). Kalimantan was the preferred region
as it’s close to the geographical centre of Indonesia.

The chosen location is an area split between North Penajam Paser Regency
and Kutai Kartanegara Regency in East Kalimantan. This is roughly between
Balikpapan and Samarinda.

It’s worth noting that’s it’s the capital that is moving, not the whole of Jakarta
(as if it was possible to somehow relocate a city of 10 million+ people).
Running alongside the news of the new capital has been news articles of
how Jakarta is sinking into the sea, and it is being abandoned. While it’s true
that the city is sinking, and rising sea levels will also cause chaos, Jakarta is
still planning for the future and it’s projected to be the world’s largest city.

Work was supposed to start in the new city in 2020, but then COVID-19
happened. The project was put on hold, then planning resumed in 2021. On
17 January 2022 it was announced that the new capital would be named
Nusantara (meaning archipelago in Indonesian).

Source : https://futuresoutheastasia.com/nusantara-new-capital-city-of-indonesia/