Indonesia to move capital to East Kalimantan
28 August, 2019
Indonesia’s president says the country’s capital will move from overcrowded, sinking and polluted Jakarta to a site in sparsely populated East Kalimantan Province on Borneo island, known for rainforests and orangutans.
President Joko Widodo said Monday intense studies over the past three years had resulted in the choice of the location on the eastern side of Borneo island.
The new capital city, which has not yet been named, will be in the middle of the vast archipelago nation and already has relatively complete infrastructure because it is near the cities of Balikpapan and Samarinda, Widodo said.
He said the burden has been become too heavy on Jakarta, on Java island, as the center of government, finance, business, trade and services as well as the location of the country’s largest airport and seaport.
Widodo said the decision was made not to move the capital elsewhere on Java because the country’s wealth and people are highly concentrated there and should be spread out.
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