JAKARTA – The government plans by the end of the year to finish assessing potential alternative cities that could become Indonesia’s new capital.
National Development Planning Board (Bappenas) head Bambang Brodjonegoro said Monday that the government was determined to move the Indonesian capital out of Java. He said Palangkaraya in Central Kalimantan was one of the options.
“It has to be outside Java,” Bambang said on the sidelines of the Regional Workshop on Country Safeguard Systems as quoted by Antara news agency. “The final decision will come within this year”.
In the search for the country’s new capital city, Bambang explained that Bappenas was looking at the availability of land and natural resources around the potential cities. He, however, declined to detail the list of the alternatives besides Palangkaraya.
The government included Palangkaraya on the list because former president Soekarno had planned to move the capital city there.
