New Capital City of Nusantara 70 Percent 'Green' and 'Smart' Says Jokowi

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo on Tuesday explained that the new capital city of Nusantara (IKN) would be built under a smart city concept, which will cover a vast land space at North Penajam Paser, East Kalimantan. He added that it would be based on forests and nature “like never before in the world.”

"The Nusantara is a smart city of the future, based on forests and nature, not yet in the world.  You may look for anything currently similar because it doesn't exist yet," he said at the Pre-Market Sounding event for the State Capital Project at the Djakarta Theater, Central Jakarta, on October 18.

The President said that 70 percent area within the new capital city will be a green area, which he claims will consist of production forests and not natural forests. 

"Monocultures that have one type of tree, namely the eucalyptus tree, are cut every 6-7 years," he said.

Jokowi intends to change the productive forest and wants to be returned to a heterogeneous forest which is expected to become a tropical rainforest again in Kalimantan.

As for the source of energy, he asserted, will come from renewable energy, 80 percent of public transportation is also planned to be autonomous, so that only pedestrians and cyclists are valued there.

President Jokowi said that the New Capital City move will not merely be about physically moving government buildings, the Presidential Palace, or moving the Vice Presidential Palace building. Jokowi asserted that the relocation intends to build is new work culture, a new mindset, and a new economy.

MOH KHORY ALFARIZI