Singapore Supports Jokowi's Vision, Facilitates Businesses to Invest in New Capital

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Singapore's Deputy Prime Minister, Lawrence Wong, said that his country supports President Joko Widodo's vision for Indonesia's new capital of IKN to be green and smart. Therefore, he said that both countries signed a memorandum of understanding for knowledge sharing in the development of Indonesia's new capital.

“I think the two sides have been meeting and will continue to meet to see how we can facilitate this knowledge sharing and capability building,” Lawrence Wong told Indonesian journalists at his office on Friday, July 7.

The Singapore government, he went on, is also ready to facilitate Singaporean investors who are interested to invest in IKN. Lawrence Wong said that a business delegation from his country visited IKN in May. “It was I think a very promising start because I understand that there was a lot of interest from the business delegation and it was good that they had the chance to visit first-hand to see the site itself and also to meet with officials and leaders there,” he said. 

Wong stated that Singapore Government would continue to facilitate such business delegations and encourage them. "But ultimately, the businesses themselves will be the ones that make the investments," he remarked.

President Jokowi, in his visit to Singapore in early June, encouraged Singaporeans to reside in the IKN as the new capital would be a good place to live and do business. Jokowi also invited Singapore's business people to invest in IKN by offering incentives such as tax holidays, non-collected value-added tax, and even super tax deductions.

Singapore Minister of Education and Foreign Affairs Maliki Osman also responded to Jokowi's invitation. Osman said that his country is ready to share experience in city planning, so IKN could be a sustainable city, signaling that Singapore businesses were interested to develop IKN. 

He also said that Indonesia is an important partner for his country. “The success of Indonesia is our success,” Osman said at his office on July 5.

Until early June, IKN authority received 223 letters of intent (LoI) from businesses that are interested to invest. They are from Japan, Malaysia, China, the U.S., France, Britain, South Korea, United Arab Emirates, and Singapore. It recorded 22 Singaporean entrepreneurs and 106 Indonesian business people.

The government claimed IKN construction had reached 30 percent. It targeted the main zone to complete next year, so the ceremony of Indonesia's 79th independence day on August 17 could be held there.

Anton Septian

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