Indonesia to move capital from Jakarta to Borneo – President Widodo

Indonesia’s president has announced that the country’s capital will be moved to an area that forms part of the North Penajam Paser and Kutai Kartanegara regions in its province of East Kalimantan, on the island of Borneo.

Moving the capital from Jakarta will cost 466 trillion rupiah ($32.79 billion), of which the state would fund 19 percent, with the rest to come from public-private partnerships and private investment, Reuters quoted Joko Widodo as saying on Monday.

Jakarta, the capital of the world’s fourth most populous country, on the island of Java, is now home to 10 million people and is prone to flooding and traffic gridlock.

The site of the new capital, 2,000km (1,250 miles) northeast of Jakarta, is one of the regions least prone to natural disasters. However, environmentalists fear the move will hasten the destruction of forests that are home to orangutans, sun bears, and long-nosed monkeys.