Indonesia taps Tony Blair and Abu Dhabi’s crown prince for advice on new capital city
- President Joko Widodo announced last August Indonesia’s capital will move from overcrowded, sinking Jakarta to a site in East Kalimantan province on Borneo island
- The capital’s relocation to a 180,000-hectare site almost triple the size of Jakarta will cost an estimated US$34 billion
The committee will also include Masayoshi Son, the billionaire founder and chief executive of Japanese holding company SoftBank, and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who currently runs the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, he said.
“We expected their presence would provide a confidence boost for prospective investors in the new capital,” Luhut said.
The minister also offered Mori territory in Central Sulawesi province as a potential investment for Sheikh Mohammed, The Jakarta Post reported.
“The crown prince asked for an island with cool air and nice beaches. He really wants to invest there. We offered Mori land,” Luhut said, without specifying what the prince wanted to invest in.
The capital’s relocation to a 180,000-hectare (444,780-acre) site almost triple the size of Jakarta will cost an estimated US$34 billion. Of that, 19 per cent is to come from the state budget and the rest from cooperation between the government and business entities and from direct investment by state-run companies and the private sector.
Where China fits in Jokowi’s plan for US$33 billion new capital city
Widodo welcomed talks between Indonesian officials and the United Arab Emirates, as well as SoftBank, on the setting up of an Indonesia Sovereign Wealth Fund which will be finalised at the end of this month in Tokyo, the maritime and investment ministry said.
It said the UAE, a federation of seven sheikdoms on the Arabian Peninsula; SoftBank; and the US International Development Finance Corporation will participate in the SWF’s funding of Indonesian development projects.
The idea to set up the fund came during a visit by Sheikh Mohammed to Indonesia last July, and the UAE has pledged to become the main investor in SWF projects, Pandjaitan said.
During Widodo’s visit to Abu Dhabi, the two countries reached 16 business and government deals in which the UAE agreed to invest US$6.8 billion through five government-to-government agreements and 11 business-to-business deals, the maritime and investment ministry said.
How ethnic Chinese shaped the home of Indonesia’s new capital
Mineral-rich East Kalimantan was once almost completely covered by rainforests, but illegal logging has removed many of its original growth. It is home to only 3.5 million people and is surrounded by Kutai National Park, known for orangutans and other primates and mammals.
Indonesia is archipelago nation of more than 17,000 islands, but currently 54 per cent of the country’s nearly 270 million people live on Java, the country’s most densely populated area.
