Indonesia on Wednesday celebrated its independence for the first time in its future capital on Borneo island, which will replace the densely populated city of Jakarta. The island includes one of the largest tropical forests in the world.
Nusantara, 2,000 kilometers from Jakarta, the new political capital of the Southeast Asian archipelago, will become the fourth largest country in the world.
The project, announced by President Joko Widodo in 2019, drew criticism from environmentalists who say it might accelerate the destruction of tropical forests.
The government is preparing to redouble its efforts on infrastructure projects so that it can open the capital when Widodo leaves office in 2024.
The new capital occupies more than 56,000 hectares in the province of East Kalimantan on the island of Borneo, which is shared by Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei.
In total, more than 256 thousand hectares have been allocated for the expansion of the project.
“The main objective (of the celebration) is to draw on the spirit of the 77th anniversary of independence to strengthen our determination to build the new capital,” an official in the New Capital Authority said.
After raising the national flag on Independence Day, workers at the site declared that they were “ready to develop Nusantara,” the name meaning “archipelago” in Indonesia.
Jakarta, a gigantic city of more than 30 million people, lacks infrastructure, is overcrowded and polluted, and its coastal area is sinking below sea level, causing floods.
Construction of the project, which was due to start in 2020, has been slowed by the pandemic. It extends in several stages until 2045.
