JAKARTA: Indonesian President Joko Widodo is weighing an audacious 2032 Olympics bid centred on the country’s not-yet-built new capital and is in early talks with SoftBank chief executive Masayoshi Son and other investors for support, sources said.
The world’s fourth-most-populous country unveiled in August plans to build a US$34bil “smart and green” new capital on the forested island of Borneo to replace the crowded, polluted megacity of Jakarta, which is slowly sinking into the sea.
According to the head of the Indonesia’s investment board (BKPM), the government is evaluating how to make the unnamed new capital its candidate city for the 2032 Olympics. It had already submitted a bid for Jakarta, and it is not clear whether the new plan would include any events there.