JAKARTA: Indonesia has drastically scaled back its Aug 17 Independence Day celebrations planned for its future capital because of challenges providing food and accommodation in the remote location.
Organisers are now only inviting 1,300 people to travel to Nusantara, down from initial plans for 8,000 guests, President Joko Widodo said in a speech to break ground for a convention centre in the new capital.
That’s the third reduction in the official guest list, though officials are going to open the event to thousands of local residents - who won’t require hotel rooms, the outgoing Indonesian leader said on Monday (Aug 12).
The president, popularly known as Jokowi, has championed the Nusantara project and made it a goal for the new city to host Indonesia’s independence day celebrations before he leaves office in October. But construction has been slow at the site, more than a thousand kilometres northeast of Jakarta and located on the island of Borneo.
Organisers have already split events, which include cultural performances, flag-raising and military drills, between Jakarta and Nusantara due to capacity limits.
Still, the project got a boost this week when president-elect Prabowo Subianto said he is committed to "continue, and if possible finish” the new capital, ending uncertainty as to whether he would abandon Jokowi’s multibillion-dollar project to pursue his own policy agenda.
Prabowo, who will be sworn in as the country’s eighth president in October, estimated that the new capital will be "functionally running” in four to five years, he told reporters at the future capital. - Bloomberg
