Home to more than 10 million people, Jakarta is one of the most congested cities in the world. It is also rapidly sinking – the result of unregulated extraction of groundwater and the weight of rapid urbanisation.
With some areas dropping by as much as 25cm a year, coupled with rising sea levels, experts believe up to one third of the city could be swamped by the Java Sea within 30 years.
With this in mind, Indonesia’s President Joko Widodo was speaking literally as well as figuratively when he said in a televised speech on Monday: “The burden Jakarta is holding right now is too heavy as the centre of governance, business, finance, trade and services.”
In the address, Widodo announced a US$33bn project to move the Indonesian government to a new, as yet unnamed, capital to be built on the east coast of Kalimantan in Indonesian Borneo. According to reports, the move is expected to take around a decade to complete, with the first branches of government set to begin relocating in 2024.
Read more at https://thinkbusiness.nus.edu.sg/article/the-costs-of-relocating-indonesias-capital/
Credits: Think Business
