McKinsey has been hired to assist the National Development Planning Agency, while Japanese conglomerate SoftBank, which has pledged to invest in the project, will work with Nikken Sekkei.
he Indonesian government is involving three international consulting firms in developing the masterplan of the country’s new capital city, which is to be located in East Kalimantan.
Coordinating Maritime Affairs and Investment Minister Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan said on Friday that American engineering company AECOM, consulting firm McKinsey & Company and Japanese architectural and engineering firm Nikken Sekkei would design the city, which is to feature the latest technology and be environmentally friendly at the same time.
McKinsey has been hired to assist the National Development Planning Agency, while Japanese conglomerate SoftBank, which has pledged to invest in the project, will work with Nikken Sekkei.
“[The consulting firms] have experience designing large cities,” said Luhut during the sidelines of a meeting on the megaproject that was also attended by former British prime minister Tony Blair and SoftBank founder and chief executive officer Masayoshi Son.
Read also: Jokowi's grand vision for new capital
The Indonesian government attracted global attention when it announced in August that it would move its capital from the flood-prone and sinking Jakarta on Java Island to a 256,000-hectare forested area straddling the regencies of North Penajam Paser and Kutai Kartanegara in East Kalimantan on Borneo, an island that it shares with Malaysia and Brunei Darussalam.
The government has estimated that the new capital would cost Rp 466 trillion (US$34.06 billion) and has declared it would finance one-fifth of that through the state budget.
Jokowi said that public money would fully fund the construction of the 5,600-ha downtown area of the new capital, where the new presidential palace and other government buildings would sit.
The government previously appointed Blair, Son and UAE Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammad bin Zayed al Nahyan to the steering committee for the project.
It was earlier revealed that the UAE government was prepared to invest $22.8 billion in Indonesia through a sovereign wealth fund, together with SoftBank and the United States International Development Finance Corporation.
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