Prabowo backs Nusantara

National spirit: Vendors waiting for customers to sell decorations in the Indonesian national flag colours of red and white in Jakarta. Prabowo and Jokowi are inspecting Nusantara ahead of the Independence Day celebrations scheduled to be held at the area on Aug 17. — AFP

President-elect Prabowo Subianto said he is committed to “continue, and if possible finish” the new capital, dispelling uncertainty as to whether the incoming leader will abandon the multibillion-dollar project of his predecessor 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 on Monday on the sidelines of a visit to the new capital city called Nusantara.