TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo has established a task force to expedite investment in the new capital city of Nusantara or IKN project. Presidential Decree (Keppres) No. 25 of 2024, signed on August 5, 2024, officially formed the IKN Investment Acceleration Task Force.

Investment Minister and Head of the Investment Coordinating Board Bahlil Lahadalia has been appointed as the task force's chair, according to a copy of the decree published on the Ministry of State Secretariat's website on August 6, 2024.

Per Article 3 of the Presidential Decree, the task force is mandated with nine key responsibilities outlined in Article 3 of the Presidential Decree:

1. Enhancing policy coordination between the IKN Authority, relevant ministries/institutions, and partner regions.

2. Aligning land acquisition, development planning, and spatial planning, as well as land development and use, for priority IKN investment activities.

3. Coordinating environmental management and approval for investment activities in IKN.

4. Implementing domestic and international promotional campaigns to attract investment to the IKN.

5. Fostering synergy among stakeholders for developing financial centers in the IKN.

6. Facilitating business permit acquisition for investors in the IKN.

7. Streamlining business processes, land rights acquisition, and investment incentives.

8. Coordinating the provision of supporting infrastructure for investment acceleration.

9 Establishing a supervisory and control mechanism for investment activities.

Special Staff to the President for Economic Affairs Arif Budimanta did not respond to Tempo's inquiry on Wednesday, August 7, 2024, regarding the urgency of forming the Investment Acceleration Task Force.

Despite receiving hundreds of memorandums of understanding (MoUs) and letters of intent (LoIs) for the IKN, foreign investment has yet to materialize, as revealed by Investment Minister Bahlil Lahadalia during a meeting with Commission VI of the House of Representatives on Tuesday, June 11, 2024.

The government has spent Rp72 trillion from the State Budget for the IKN project from 2022 to 2024. The composition of the State Budget to finance the IKN project is set at only 20 percent of the total Rp466.9 trillion project cost, or Rp90.4 trillion, with the remaining sourced from public-private partnerships and private investments.

Domestic investment in the IKN has reached Rp49.6 trillion through groundbreaking by 32 institutions between September 2023 and March 2024. However, foreign investment remains absent.

As chair of the IKN Investment Task Force, Bahlil will be supported by the Deputy Minister of Agrarian Affairs and Spatial Planning, the Head of the IKN Authority (OIKN), the Secretary of the Deputy Head of the OIKN, and representatives from the Ministry of Home Affairs, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Environment and Forestry, the Ministry of Public Works and Housing, the Ministry of State-Owned Enterprises, the Attorney General's Office, the Indonesian National Police, and the Financial Services Authority.

DANIEL A. FAJRI

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