TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Indonesia's Public Works and Public Housing (PUPR) Minister Basuki Hadimuljono invited Singaporean investors to not hesitate to invest in the new capital city Nusantara (IKN).

"We hope that this visit will be a memorable experience for (investors from) Singapore. The most important thing is that hopefully, the visit will not merely appeal to them but also encourage them to decide to invest in the IKN," Minister Hadimuljono stated in Jakarta, on Wednesday.

The minister said that this is the right time for investors to start to invest, as the government has signed and received several memoranda of understanding (MoUs) and Letters of Intent (LOIs).

Earlier, while attending the Leaders' Retreat in Singapore in March 2023, President Jokowi Widodo highlighted that the government had received LOIs from some 20 private Singaporean companies in which they conveyed their interest in investing in IKN.

The minister expected that the Singaporean investors' visit will, in turn, assure them to invest, saying that their investments in the IKN will provide positive impacts on the cooperation of both countries in the future, particularly in the context of the investment plan for IKN development.

Hadimuljono welcomed the visit of 95 Singaporean investors to the IKN construction project area. The visit is part of the series of activities of the Singapore Business Visit to IKN Nusantara in East Kalimantan, Wednesday.

The minister told the investors that the Indonesian government had commenced the construction process for the new capital city. IKN Nusantara is no longer merely a dream, as the construction process is already underway, he affirmed.

"The PUPR Ministry will be in charge of providing basic infrastructure until Stage I in 2024, and the construction will proceed to the other stages. It should be noted that the government will implement the concept of engineering drawing in IKN development and not artist drawing," he noted.

Meanwhile, PUPR Ministry's Head of the IKN Development Task Force Danis H. Sumadilaga stated that the government is currently working on the development of the central government core area (KIPP) in 1A zone under the Stage I.

"Seeing is believing. We will conduct a site visit to directly monitor the construction process in the 1A zone. Until this point, the physical construction process has reached 29.45-percent completion," he revealed.

The Singaporean investors' visit was held under the collaboration between the Investment Ministry and Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM) and the Indonesian Embassy in Singapore. Both parties organized the activity in response to the Singaporean investors' eagerness to participate in the IKN development.

ANTARA

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