'Smart city in forest' envisioned

Indonesia to create economic opportunities by moving capital from crowded, sinking Jakarta

Indonesia, by choosing an undeveloped area for the site of its new capital, is creating economic opportunities as the government plans a "smart city in the forest" on the island of Borneo.

Work on the new capital near the cities of Balikpapan and Samarinda in East Kalimantan province will begin in 2021, and the project will cost an estimated $44 billion. The government is expected to fund 19 percent of the project, with the remaining 81 percent coming from public-private partnerships and private investment.

Analysts say the new, as yet unnamed, capital will be a state-of-the-art city. As envisioned, it will be a far cry from overcrowded Jakarta, which has served as Indonesia's financial and political heart since 1949.

Indonesian Planning Minister Bambang Brodjonegoro said the new capital will be "a smart city in the forest", and the government has set aside 180,000 hectares of land for the project.

Jakarta, home to more than 10 million people, and with an estimated 30 million living in the greater metropolitan area, is one of the world's most overpopulated cities, according to the United Nations. With more than a third of the city built on swampland, Jakarta is slowly sinking. It also has some of the world's worst traffic congestion and air pollution.

The new capital will allow city planners to create a blueprint for a liveable city free from pollution and congestion, said Heri Andreas, a lecturer and researcher on Earth science and technology at the Bandung Institute of Technology in Bandung, Indonesia.

Relocating to East Kalimantan, Borneo, will put the capital in the center of the archipelago.

"It is less prone to natural disasters, such as volcanoes and earthquakes, because it does not sit on the so-called ring of fire belt that circles the Pacific," Andreas said.

"Having said that, Borneo still has the potential for forest fires, as most of the island is jungle. So smoke haze could be a problem. Flooding could also be another problem."

While the government has yet to outline any specifics, analysts said the new capital will have a political focus, leaving much of the economic, business and trade functions in Jakarta. However, some economic functions may eventually relocate to the new capital.

"I don't see the probability that Jakarta will be left behind after the new capital is established," Andreas said.

Bharat Dahiya, a regional expert on urbanization, said the planning, building and development of a new capital presents huge opportunities.

"It allows that country to express its national conscience, articulate its cultural ethos and heritage, and showcase its highest civilizational achievements, including those in philosophy, art, architecture, science, technology and engineering," he said.

"In the 21st century context, such an opportunity will also entail preserving the existing (urban) ecological spaces and possibly creating new ones," said Dahiya, the director of the Research Center for Integrated Sustainable Development at the College of Interdisciplinary Studies of Thammasat University in Bangkok, Thailand.

"In the case of Indonesia, paradoxically, such a unique moment - to develop a new capital city - has presented itself on the back of an unfolding global environmental and climate crisis. Over the past few years, such ever-intensifying impacts of environmental and climate crises have threatened Indonesia's current capital city."

Dahiya, also a distinguished professor at the Urban Youth Academy in Seoul, South Korea, said a national capital should showcase a country's art and architecture based on its own history and cultural heritage.

"In other words, it should not be 'copy-paste' of a culture that is alien to its people and land. It should present a 'city in nature' look, with land use interspersed with natural parks and gardens with native trees and plants.

In addition, Dahiya said: "A city should promote mobility of its people - not simply that of vehicles - by providing efficient public transport, nonmotorized transport, cycling paths and cycle parking lots. And most important, (it should have) sidewalks and walkways shaded with trees or otherwise."

Dahiya added that planners should involve residents in decision-making and ensure they are "part of the urban fabric".

Indonesian President Joko Widodo recently announced that moving the country's capital will be a mammoth, expensive undertaking.

"As a large nation that has been independent for 74 years, Indonesia has never chosen its own capital," Widodo said during a media briefing on Aug 26.

Currently, 54 percent of the country's population live on Java, the country's most densely populated area.

But environmentalists fear the move will hasten the destruction of forests that are home to orangutans, sun bears and long-nosed monkeys, and lead to increasing pollution from the coal mining and palm oil industries.

karlwilson@chinadailyapac.com

(China Daily Global 08/30/2019 page1)