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Int'l firms to draw up new capital master plan
The government will bring in three international consulting firms to help develop the city master plan for the country’s new capital in East Kalimantan, which has been envisioned to become "a smart metropolis" that matches the United States' Silicon Valley
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span>The government will bring in three international consulting firms to help develop the city master plan for the country’s new capital in East Kalimantan, which has been envisioned to become "a smart metropolis" that matches the United States' Silicon Valley.
Coordinating Maritime Affairs and Investment Minister Luhut Pandjaitan said on Friday that American engineering company AECOM, management consulting firm McKinsey & Company and Japanese architectural and engineering firm Nikken Sekkei would design the city. The development of the new capital will make use of the latest technology and be environmentally friendly.
McKinsey has been hired to assist the National Development Planning Agency (Bappenas) 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 outside a meeting on the megaproject at the State Palace that was also attended by President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, former British prime minister Tony Blair and SoftBank founder and chief executive officer Masayoshi Son.
Indonesia attracted global attention when it announced in August 2019 that it would move its capital from flood-prone and sinking Jakarta in Java to a 256,000-hectare tropical rainforest straddling the regencies of North Penajam Paser and Kutai Kartanegara in East Kalimantan.
Making the development of the new capital a priority of his second term, President Jokowi has set out a grand vision for the new capital city. He said that the new city would be a “smart metropolis” and attract technological innovators who would help sustain the country for the next century and beyond.
“It will be similar to Silicon Valley [in the US], where creative industries were born and established their headquarters,” he said while revealing the plan in September last year.
The new capital is set to boast cutting-edge technology, a more efficient urban transportation system and online applications to improve the delivery of public services. The new capital will also have world-class education institutions and modern hospitals, botanical parks, pedestrian-friendly sidewalks and green transportation systems.
During Friday’s meeting, Blair expressed his excitement in joining the project.
“It's going to be a project that doesn’t just mean creating a new capital city, but a capital city that is going to be very special in the way that it's developed with a particular emphasis on it being clean and green and doing the very best for the environment, but also a capital city that will allow the economy of the country as a whole to develop and grow,” he said.
The government estimates that the new capital will cost Rp 466 trillion (US$34.06 billion) and will finance one-fifth of that cost from the state budget. Jokowi said that public money would fully fund the 5,600-ha downtown area of the new capital, where the new presidential palace and other government buildings would sit.
The government has appointed Blair, Son and United Arab Emirates (UAE) Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammad bin Zayed al Nahyan to join the steering committee for the development 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 US International Development Finance Corporation (IDFC).
The government hopes to conduct a “soft groundbreaking” within this year amid its efforts to attract more private investment for the project.
National Development Planning Minister Suharso Monoarfa told the media earlier that the soft groundbreaking phase would include completing basic infrastructure facilities such as roads and a city master plan.
He brushed off concerns that such a move would be seen as too hasty, saying “if there are obstacles during the pre-master plan phase, we would then not go ahead [with the capital relocation]”.
Suharso added that the government would soon come up with further detailed proposals on which construction projects for the new capital could be taken up by the private sector, saying that they would need to finalize the master plan of the capital city first.
“There will be some clusters [in the new capital] and these will be offered to investors,” Suharso said. “The opportunity [to invest in the new capital] is open to everyone.”
Before the announcement of the international firms who will help develop the city, the government had also held a competition among local urban planners to design the city.
The Public Works and Housing Ministry picked urban design studio URBAN+ for its concept called “Nagara Rimba Nusa” as the winner of the design contest.
The design concept, which roughly translates to “forest and island hilltop”, includes national landmarks such as the Indonesia Raya (Great Indonesia) presidential palace and the Bhinneka Tunggal Ika (Unity in Diversity) plaza in its features.
Luhut said the concept from the local designers would be incorporated in the master plan.
