THE MAINICHI

 

JAKARTA (Kyodo) -- Japan has offered to assist Indonesia in accomplishing its ambitious plan to relocate the national capital to the forests of Borneo.

The offer was made during a closed-door meeting between Hiroto Izumi, special adviser to Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, and Indonesian Coordinating Minister for Maritime and Investment Affairs Luhut Pandjitan on Tuesday evening, a source with knowledge of the meeting told Kyodo News on Wednesday.

Along with some Japanese businessmen, Izumi is on a three-day visit in Indonesia from Tuesday, being members of a delegation led by former Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda.

In August, President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo decided to move Indonesia's capital away from congested Jakarta, on Java Island, to a location in East Province, in eastern Borneo, suggesting it could happen within five years.
The new capital will be between Samarinda, the province's capital, and Balikpapan, its largest city, located some 90 kilometers to the south. Both are situated near the east coast of the world's third-largest island, over 1,200 km away from Jakarta.

According to the Kyodo source, although Izumi thought that Indonesia's timeline to move its capital is "too fast," Japan is ready to contribute "if Indonesia asks" for assistance.

The source quoted Izumi as saying that although Japan has never moved its capital, it has experience in "building a very big new artificial town," referring to Tsukuba, a city located about 60 kilometers northeast of Tokyo.

During Tuesday's meeting, the source added, Izumi also told Pandjaitan that to move capital, "it is important to design a human-centered city." He particularly stressed that giving priority to infrastructure development without listening to the voice of the people who will be living in the new capital "would not be good."

Michiaki Hirose, chairman of Tokyo Gas Co., who also attended the meeting with Pandjaitan, meanwhile, expressed his company's wish to contribute in the development of the new capital, saying Japan is experienced in building an efficient, disaster-proof energy system, according to the source.

Jokowi has said implementing the plan may cost around 466 trillion rupiah (about $33 billion), to be financed partly by the state budget, by a partnership scheme between the government and private sector and by direct investment.

During the meeting, Pandjaitan also requested Japanese businessman in the delegation to invest more in Indonesia, from the northernmost Indonesian city of Sabang, off the northern part of Sumatra Island, to Papua Province, which is rich in gold, silver, copper, bauxite and cobalt.

China, the minister was quoted by the source as saying, has been "aggressively" investing in Indonesia, "but we don't want to cooperate only with China because Japan is our older brother."

Wednesday, after the Japanese delegation paid a courtesy call on Jokowi, Coordinating Minister for the Economy Airlangga Hartarto told a press conference that there are 17 national projects currently being done and to be done in cooperation with Japan.

Among the 17 projects are the medium-speed railway project connecting Jakarta and the country's second-largest city of Surabaya, the second phase of Jakarta's mass rapid transit project, and flood mitigation.