If the plans of Indonesia’s president Joko Widodo, nicknamed “Jokowi”, continue as before, his country will be quite different in a few years. At least at the administrative level. In 2019, Widodo launched an ambitious project to move the republic’s institutional and political center 1,300 km north; This project will involve relocating the capital from its current location, Jakarta, to Nusantara in Borneo. Change will not be easy. And not just because Indonesia’s future nerve center is a city still under construction. In addition to building the metropolis, Widodo’s government also needs to persuade its citizens to move there.

And to achieve this he decided to use influencers.

Goodbye Jakarta, hello Nusantara. The decision to create a new capital does not have general consensus in Indonesia, but the Joko Widodo-led Government has good arguments to defend it. Specifically, it addresses a major problem: Jakarta, the current administrative center on the island of Java, is sinking. Really. It is estimated at about 7.5 centimeters per year.

The rise in ocean levels, urban expansion and groundwater extraction have left the metropolis, which has a population of approximately 30 million in its entire territory and is also marked by traffic congestion and orography, with 40% of the city below, in a complex situation. Sea level.

Against this backdrop, in 2019 Widodo’s government announced plans to move the country’s administrative center, an idea that has been on the table for decades. And if such a big decision always represents a challenge, in his case the move was even more complicated by one important factor: the capital would be moved not to another major city in Indonesia, but to a city under construction; tens of billions of dollars of investment.

The surroundings of Nusantara in a satellite image from April 2022, before work began.

The surroundings of Nusantara in a satellite image from February 2024, where work is already advanced.

Borneo’s new capital. The new capital, Nusantara, will be located on the island of Borneo and is intended to become a major hub for Indonesia, hosting several strategic clusters as well as the Government’s “nerve centre”. The report dedicated to the project by ICEX a few months ago gives a clear idea of ​​​​the dimensions of the project and what the territorial organization of the metropolis of the future will be like.

The idea is that the national strategic area is 256,100 hectares, the development area is 200,000 hectares, the Nusantara district is about 56,200 hectares, and the government center is expanded by about 6,600 hectares. At least on paper, it plans to allocate a large percentage to green spaces and public transport, in addition to renewable energy and a net-zero emissions target.

With visible progress. But Nusantara is much more than numbers, percentages and theory. Construction of the new capital began in July 2022 in an area of ​​forests and fields, and work has progressed at a noticeable pace since then. This was also confirmed by NASA, which took a series of satellite images three months ago that clearly showed changes in the area near Balikpapan Bay, where roads and buildings were already visible.

“In the 2024 photo, soil for a road network excavated in the forest has been revealed,” the agency said. According to the project website, the first phase of development includes the construction of government facilities and other buildings for the population. “500,000 people were initially planned”. The project’s creators plan to deploy thousands of civil servants to the city this autumn, but the full work will not be completed until 2045. Widodo’s aim will actually be to celebrate the 79th anniversary of the city’s independence in Nusantara. Republic, a meeting planned for August 17 ceremony.

Nusantara infographic.

Use influencers. Workers, architects, civil servants and politicians are not all that have been seen in Nusantara in recent months. In September, Widodo invited a group of people. influencers will accompany him during a tour of the future capital. Its aim: to bring visibility to the project and strengthen the attractiveness of a city that is expected to play a key role in Indonesia.

As stated in a statement made by Indonesian officials after the visit, it is thought that the future capital will be “known to the entire society”, eliminating “false assumptions and deceptions” regarding the project. Other experts say one of the purposes of applying influencers To attract young population from Jakarta or Java so that they feel more motivated when moving to Nusantara.

“The smartest city in the world”. The result appeared like videos posted by Jerhemy Owen, who has 3.1 million followers on TikTok, shortly after the visit, emphasizing that Nusantara “will be the smartest and most ecological city in the world”; or Baim Paula, who has 21.3 million subscribers on her YouTube channel. During the tour, influencers and creators had the opportunity to visit some of the buildings on site and hear remarks from the president himself.

“We hope influencers In statements reported by Rest of World, Usaman Kansong of the Ministry of Communications emphasizes that he may participate in the dissemination of information about Nusantara. “The aim is to increase public knowledge and create a positive attitude towards moving to the capital.” It doesn’t look like the attempt went completely wrong. You can see messages of support from Widodo in the comments of the articles, but there are also those who show skepticism or criticize directly. influencers to participate in official discourse.

Neither new nor uncontroversial. Indonesia’s decision may be striking, but it is not new. The country is not the first to change its capital, as Brazil, Nyanmar and Nigeria have done in the past. A new administrative nerve center is also taking shape in Egypt, 50 kilometers away from Cairo. In the case of Nusantara, this measure is not without controversy. Indikator Politik Indonesia’s surveys show that the project is far from gaining consensus.

There are also critical voices about the impact of the works on the environment and what the deforestation of the environment could create for the future of the metropolis or the pressures that indigenous people would face to abandon their lands. Another of the biggest challenges is the financing of the project, which will require the mobilization of billions of dollars, mainly private investment.

Pictures | Nusantara Capital Authority Public Affairs, NASA Earth Observatory

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