TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan claims the telecommunications and media company from Japan, SoftBank, is interested in funding the construction of Indonesia's new capital city in East Kalimantan. The value of the investment reportedly reaches US$ 100 billion.

"He (the CEO of Softbank Masayoshi Son) urges to invest US$ 100 billion. For me, this is too good to be true," said Luhut while attending the Christmas celebration in the office of the Agency for Research and Application of Technology (BPPT) on Tuesday, January 7, 2020.

According to Luhut, the value of the investment is too large. He says a US$25 billion investment is enough because the current capital transfer is already running.

To discuss the continuation of the capital investment, the minister admitted Masayoshi Son has been communicating intensely with him via phone call and teleconference.

On Friday, 10 January 2020, Luhut said Masayoshi will see him directly. "Yeah we'll see, he's coming tomorrow," he said.

Softbank recently aggressively approaching Indonesia to invest in the country. In 2019, the company plans to inoculate the company stub Grab Indonesia amounting to US$ 2 billion or Rp 28 trillion.

Francisca Christy Rosana | Safira Andini