JAKARTA: Indonesia Vice-President Gibran Rakabuming Raka has dismissed claims that Nusantara – the country’s future capital in East Kalimantan – is becoming a “ghost town”, saying the construction and phased relocation of civil servants are progressing according to plan.
In an interview on Thursday (Jan 29) with B-Universe Media Holdings, Gibran said negative portrayals in some international media reports did not reflect conditions on the ground.
“Many people keep asking about Nusantara because recently there were foreign media reports with negative narratives, saying it is a ghost town or stalled,” he said, as quoted by news outlet Jakarta Globe.
“The development there is moving forward and from my latest visit, the progress is already quite good and on track.”
Gibran visited Nusantara on Dec 30 last year. Two weeks later on Jan 12, President Prabowo Subianto made his first presidential visit to the future capital since taking office in October 2024.
The project is a legacy of Prabowo’s predecessor Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, who is Gibran’s father. Jokowi mooted the idea of moving Indonesia’s administrative centre in 2019, arguing that Jakarta’s traffic congestion, regular flooding, polluted air and sinking land surface made it no longer fit to be the nation’s capital.
He also hoped relocating the capital would correct the deep economic imbalance between the archipelago’s well-developed western provinces and its eastern frontiers.
https://www.channelnewsasia.com/asia/indonesia-gibran-rakabuming-nusantara-ghost-town-kalimantan-5896006
