Indonesia’s Widodo delays move to new capital, amid Prabowo’s potential shift on Nusantara

Widodo last month said he would start working from the new capital – Nusantara – in July, hoping to restore confidence in the costly megaproject plagued by delays and insufficient funding.

“If the water is ready, if the electricity is ready, if the place is ready, we will move there,” Widodo told reporters last week. “I have received a report that [Nusantara] is not yet ready.”

The delay has cast fresh doubts on the project, highlighted last month when two top officials overseeing the development of Nusantara suddenly resigned.

Widodo’s vision for this new capital involves transforming 2,560 sq km of land in East Kalimantan on the island of Borneo into a functional new green smart city over the next 25 to 30 years.

“While it might be possible to complete basic facilities like clean water, electricity, lodging, and other essential amenities in time for the celebration, the daily operations of the government are still far from ready,” said Nicky Fahrizal, a political and legal researcher at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Jakarta.

Political analyst Yohanes Sulaiman, noting the lack of progress thus far on the project, said the timeline appeared “unrealistic”, adding that there had been whispers in political circles and among the public about the economic viability of the development.

“The political will to move, it is just not there … There are a lot of questions about how much money is going to be spent on the project or if people want to move there,” said Yohanes from the University of Jenderal Achmad Yani in West Java.

According to analysts, uncertainty over the project has sowed doubt among investors, deterring foreign companies from committing funds.

Widodo has said 20 per cent of the project’s