President Jokowi: Three Candidates for New Capital City

President Jokowi took a wefie at his visit at PT KMK Global Spots shoes factory, Cikupa, Tangerang Regency, Banten, Tuesday (30/4). (Photo by: Presidential Secretariat)

There are three candidates that will be chosen as the new capital city and those three candidates can be in Sumatra, Sulawesi, or in Kalimantan, President Joko ‘Jokowi’ Widodo has said.

“We have (more than) 17,000 islands but 57 percent of the populations are concentrated in Java. As a result, the carrying capacity including water, environment, traffic, and so on is no longer possible to support the continuing increase of population in the future. So I decided to move (the capital city) out of Java,” President Jokowi said in Tangerang, Banten, Tuesday (30/4).

“We must check in detail the environmental carrying capacity and disasters resilience such as floods or earthquakes,” the President said.

According to President Jokowi, the decision to move the country’s capital city will be consulted with the Indonesian House of Representatives (DPR-RI) as well as to formal and informal community figures since it involves a vision for the future in building a representative administration city.

The Government will also carry out studies on law, social, politics and so on. “But it still has to be consulted with the DPR-RI,” he stated, adding that the Government would also take into account the long-term plan.

Previously, in a Limited Cabinet Meeting held at the Presidential Office, Jakarta, Monday (29/4), President Jokowi said that the idea to move capital city had emerged since the administration of the first Indonesian President Soekarno and had always been discoursing in every era of the presidents but the plan never materialized. (BPMI/FID/ES)

Translated by: Galuh Wicaksono
Edited by: Muhardi