Jokowi says new capital on track after project leaders quit

Indonesian leader in East Kalimantan to reassure public about capital’s development

- Hariz Baharudin

President Joko Widodo has travelled to East Kalimantan and reassured the public that Indonesia’s planned new capital there is on track.

This comes just a day after the bombshell announcement that the leaders of the body overseeing the project had resigned.

On June 4, speaking at an event in the city of Balikpapan, the closest port of call to Nusantara, Mr Widodo stressed how the city is still “in the development process” and that it would be the “greenest capital in the world”.

He noted that as much as Nusantara will be filled with buildings, it will also be filled with green spaces, and that the city will be designed to include city parks. “The dream city of the future... is a… smart city, a creative city, which is liveable,” he said.

His comments in Balikpapan, a two-hour drive from Nusantara, came after news broke on June 3 about the resignations of the head and deputy head of the new capital project.

In an Instagram post later that day, Mr Widodo, popularly known as Jokowi, said that the development of Nusantara will not stop.

“The development of IKN will continue according to the shared vision that has been established,” he said, using the initials of the city’s full name – Ibu Kota Nusantara.

On June 3, Indonesia’s presidential office announced that Mr Widodo had accepted the resignations of Mr Bambang Susantono, a former official at the Asian Development Bank who was heading the project, and his deputy Dhony Rahajoe, an architect and former real estate developer.