Citiestalk – Financing New Indonesian Cities: Preparing for Relocation of Capital City

On July 31st, 2019, at GoWork FX Sudirman, Citieslab (NUA’s research and capacity building program) hosted “Citiestalk,” a talk show-formatted discussion to discuss contemporary urban issues, presenting leading Indonesian and international experts.

This series of Citiestalk: Financing New Indonesian Cities, Preparing for Relocation of New Capital, discussed Indonesia’s plan to develop ten new Cities and Metropolitan areas, and the discourse of moving the capital city as well. National media reported that the World Bank approved the Indonesian Government loan worth US$ 49,6 Million (IDR 700 Billion) as the funding for the metropolitan development program. Indonesia Government, through the Ministry of National Development Planning, planned to develop ten areas/regions into the new metropolitan to decrease the regional disparity.

Bernardus Djonoputro (President of IAP Indonesia) moderated the discussion, featuring Dani Muttaqin (Executive Director of Real Estate Indonesia), Sibarani Sofian (Founder of Urban+), Tory Damantoro (Executive Director of Center for Infrastructure Studies of Indonesia (CISI)), and Tim Anderson (President Director of Jacobs Indonesia).

The discussion summarized that many financing alternatives that encourage new city development acceleration. Bernardus stated that private sector participation through PPP scheme should be the government’s primary strategy for acceleration. Dani further said that the government should prepare a regulation to support private sector involvement since private sectors would seek for guarantee and security of their investment. Tory also stated that a brand-new and breakthrough financing regulation should be established to support new capital city development. Sibarani and Tim added that seeking funding from the global players are also necessary to accelerate the growth, given the examples from many other successful cases in other countries.

This series of discussion are expected to enrich the discourse on financing new city development in Indonesia. You can also watch the discussion on our video page.