The pristine jungle on the island of Borneo, about 1,200 km from the capital Jakarta (Indonesia), is more familiar to animals than humans. However, the wild landscape in this area is being considered by the Indonesian government as an attractive alternative to the current capital Jakarta - which is predicted to be the fastest sinking megacity in the world, according to the Washington Post. Plans to move the capital away from Jakarta have been discussed for many years in the world's largest island nation, Indonesia.
Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia, has long been the country's economic, political and cultural center. The city has seen rapid growth since Indonesia gained independence in 1945. However, this rapid development has come with serious consequences. Jakarta is facing serious land subsidence, causing many areas to sink below sea level. Experts warn that without timely measures, a significant part of the city will disappear under water in the next few decades.
Indonesia, Southeast Asia's leading economic power, is making a bold decision: moving its capital.
Research by the Indonesian Agency for the Assessment and Application of Technology in 2021 showed that Jakarta is sinking an average of about 6cm per year, making it one of the fastest sinking cities on earth.
“Building sea dykes is inevitable because flooding has already happened, but over time the sea dykes will sink and flooding will happen again. The best solution to control land subsidence is to control groundwater extraction,” Heri Andreas, an earth scientist at the Bandung Institute of Technology, told AFP.
In 2022, Indonesia passed a law to fund and move its capital city. The committee in charge of planning the new capital said the move was urgent due to significant pressure from “factors such as traffic congestion, pollution and overcrowding” in Jakarta and Java.
Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia, has long been the country's economic, political, and cultural center.
According to the management plan, within the next two decades, Nusantara will become a new megacity with an expected population of about 1.9 million people. To prepare for that future, about 47 apartment buildings are being built, 12 of which were ready and inaugurated last month. In addition, the Indonesian government also plans to transfer 20,000 civil servants from Jakarta to Nusantara. The first group of 12,000 employees from 38 ministries will make the move by the end of December this year.
In the “2023 Achievement Report” of the Nusantara Capital Management Board, President Jokowi emphasized that the new capital is part of “Indonesia’s grand strategy” Golden Vision 2045 to turn Indonesia into a developed country by 2045, the 100th anniversary of its independence.
"Nusantara, the future capital of Indonesia, is expected to be a green, modern and sustainable city. The city's development plan aims to build an ideal living environment, with a developed public transport system, large green spaces and smart buildings. However, building a new city on a large area requires logging of primary forests, causing many controversies about the impact on the environment. Environmentalists are concerned that Nusantara will repeat Jakarta's mistakes and become a new "concrete monster".
The new capital is about 1,200 km from Jakarta (Indonesia), an environment more familiar to animals than humans.
Indonesia has other ambitious goals as well. By 2035, Nusantara aims to achieve zero poverty. By 2022, nearly 1 in 10 Indonesians lived in poverty, according to the World Bank. By 2045, the city also aims to achieve net zero emissions.
Aside from Indonesia, several countries have also built new capitals in the past century. In 1960, Brazil inaugurated its capital, Brasília, a modernist city built on a wild plateau.
More recently, Egypt has begun building a new capital to replace Cairo. Faced with problems of urban density, pollution and traffic congestion, the country will build the new capital – currently known as the New Administrative Capital – east of Cairo.
