May 17, 2023
JAKARTA – President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo appointed Coordinating Maritime Affairs and Investment Minister Luhut Panjaitan as the head of a task force set up to accelerate investment realization for the country’s planned new capital Nusantara.
Head of the Nusantara Capital City (IKN) Authority Bambang Susantono announced the decision on Monday.
Bambang said Luhut’s job would be to coordinate relevant agencies managing the work of bringing in investment to projects in and around Nusantara.
“With this task force we expect the acceleration process for investment in the new capital to be managed better and become more efficient,” Bambang was quoted as saying by Antara.
Other than assigning Luhut as head of the task force, President Jokowi also ordered the IKN Authority to set up another task force to handle land ownership issues.
“We want all land plots offered to investors to be clean and clear,” Bambang said.
Nusantara is President Jokowi’s flagship project and is envisioned as a green, smart city spanning nearly 260,000 hectares (ha) to replace the current overcrowded and rapidly sinking capital of Jakarta.
However, with a US$32 billion price tag and the COVID-19 pandemic delaying progress, some investors have expressed concern development may lose momentum after Jokowi ends his second and final five-year term in office in 2024.
Under an incentives’ package announced in March, the government will remove corporate tax for companies investing at least Rp 10 billion (US$647,660) in some sectors for 10 to 30 years, with the longest tax holiday applied to infrastructure and public services up until 2035.