T

he Jakarta Council has approved Rp 360 billion (US$25.3 million) in funding for the city to host the Formula E race for electric cars in 2020. The city administration had proposed a budget of Rp 345.9 billion.

In response to the approval, Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan said he would proceed with conducting comparative and feasibility studies to prepare for the event.

“From our preliminary study, hosting the Formula E will boost our economy by up to Rp 1.2 trillion. That will be for Jakarta alone,” Anies said on Wednesday, noting that pre-events, the main event and side events would also put Indonesia as a country in the spotlight.

Concurring with Anies, Jakarta Council Speaker Prasestyo Edi Marsudi said he was looking forward to the event.

“Maybe the Formula E could be a new source of income for the city, especially if we could make it regular, just like Singapore and Malaysia. [The City Council] would not mind, as long as we have the budget,” he said.

“It wouldn’t be enough to hold it only once. There should also be F1 Indonesia, for example, from [the National Monument in Central Jakarta] to the Semanggi interchange,” he added.

No details were divulged as to how the funds for the event might be used.

The funds were approved on Tuesday during a meeting on the revised 2019 budget through the general regional budget amendment policy (KUPA) and temporary regional budget priority and ceiling amendment (PPAS).

Jakarta Development Planning Board head Sri Mahendra said the city had at first requested funds from the central government, particularly the Youth and Sports Ministry, but the ministry, rejected the proposal and said it had no spare funds for the plan.

“We had sent a letter to the ministry; they said they did not have the budget, so we resorted to using the city budget,” Sri said in the meeting.

Jakarta Youth and Sports Agency head Achmad Firdaus said he had notified the Home Ministry about the plan to use the city budget to finance the sporting event.

“The ministry has responded to our letter, although not yet through [an official] letter. Verbally, they said they supported [the plan],” Achmad said.

He went on to explain that the event at first was to be organized by the city’s tourism agency. However, the plan was later handed over to the Jakarta Youth and Sports Agency, because Formula E was a sport that had its own parent organization.

Plans to host the Formula E first emerged in July, when Anies, through his personal Instagram account, claimed he and the Formula E management had agreed to make Jakarta a host city.

“Thank God, we did it! Jakarta will be one of the hosts for the prestigious car race Formula E in mid-2020,” he said in his Instagram post.

He had just returned from a visit to New York, in which he met top Formula E officials Alejandro Agag and Alberto Longo.

Responding to Anies’ claim, Formula E CEO Alejandro Agag, however, was quoted by motorsport.com as saying that talks about Jakarta becoming a host city were still ongoing.

“We’re in advanced discussions but aren’t yet able to make any announcement,” a Formula E spokesperson said.

Formula E actually has an empty slot on Dec. 14 in its 2019/2020 season, which comprises of 14 races from Nov. 22, 2019, to July 26, 2020. The host cities include Mexico City, Hong Kong, Rome, Paris, Seoul, Berlin, New York and London.

Formula E was initiated by Alejanfro Agag in 2012, kicking off its first race series in Beijing on Sept. 13, 2014.