National Development Planning Minister Bambang Brodjonegoro said in a recent exclusive interview with The Jakarta Post that the plan to move the capital was considered “final”, hinting that the government would not backtrack from it.

Bambang said legislation would act as a legal basis to facilitate the relocation, while also proposing the establishment of a government agency to oversee the development of the new capital city.

“It is our preliminary suggestion [to form] an authority for the development and management [of the new capital]. We hope that the body would not only oversee the construction but also the initial operational phase of the new capital,” said Bambang in Jakarta, adding that more details about the body would be explained in the legislation on the capital’s relocation.

President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo revived the decades-old idea to move the capital off Java in a limited Cabinet meeting in late April following a preliminary study conducted by the National Development Planning Agency (Bappenas) — a government agency headed by Bambang.

During the meeting, Bappenas presented three alternative scenarios: to maintain Jakarta as the capital city and consolidate government offices in the Medan Merdeka area of Central Jakarta, to move the capital outside of Jakarta to one of the nearby cities, or to move the capital off Java.

“Based on our recommendation, as well as the President’s decision, it was decided that we would go off Java and later we focused more on Kalimantan,” said Bambang.

Jokowi himself had visited several locations in Kalimantan in early May, namely Bukit Soeharto in East Kalimantan, the Triangle Area of Palangkaraya, Katingan regency and Gunung Mas regency in Central Kalimantan. He seemed particularly impressed with at least two of them.

Bambang said the final location would be announced by Jokowi this year, which would be followed up by a development masterplan and legal basis in 2020 and ground breaking by 2021.

By 2024, it was hoped that some government functions would already be operating in the new capital, Bambang said, adding that he hoped the planning would ensure the continuity of the relocation through to the next administration.

Bambang said the relocation of the capital was a symbolic gesture to address the imbalances of the economic contributions and development between Java, on which most of the country’s population and economic activities are concentrated, and outside Java.

“We want to make a symbolic [gesture] and give encouragement that it is time to try to lessen the inequality [between Java and the rest of the country],” said Bambang.

Center of Reform on Economic (CORE) executive director Mohammad Faisal concurred with Bambang, saying that relocation of the capital would represent a symbolic move to address the imbalances in regional development.

“In the last 20 years, Java’s relative contribution to the gross domestic product [GDP] was largely unchanged despite decentralization,” said Mohammad, referring to the policy of granting more autonomy to regional administrations as one of the reforms that followed the fall of the Soeharto government in the late 1990s.

To further bring out the economic potential of the regions outside Java, Faisal said the government should focus on directing investments toward manufacturing, as well as to tourism in regions across the archipelago.

However, he urged the government to be cautious in planning the move, which was estimated to cost about Rp 466 trillion (US$33.01 billion), considering the state’s limited ability to finance it.

“The planning should be thorough and should be able to minimize inefficiencies in the relocation,” he said.

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