Report Indonesia, Jakarta. On August 26, 2019, President Joko Widodo announced that the State Capital of the Republic of Indonesia would be moved from DKI Jakarta to East Kalimantan.
The relocation of the New Capital City, which is 1,400 kilometers from Jakarta, will be built as a mega project in the administrative area of Penajam Paser Utara Regency (PPU) and Kutai Kartanegara Regency, East Kalimantan. The extent of reaching 180,965 hectares.
With an estimated cost of US $ 33.5 Billion or equivalent to Rp. 470 Trillion, or around 18 percent of Indonesia’s state budget which is valued at US $ 178 Billion. Jokowi has signaled the significance of the decision he took, that the construction of the mega project will begin in 2020.
Reporting from the NGO Coalition. Activists have identified that the Billionaire Taipan will control the New Capital site and potentially benefit from a mega project worth US $ 33.5 billion.
The US $ 33.5 billion mega project will benefit the interests of a handful of land authorities, namely coal mines, oil palm, timber and coal-fired power plants and property entrepreneurs. Starting from mining projects to plantation projects, with company ownership from Bakrie to Prabowo.
The new capital region will be divided into three rings. Ring one covering an area of 5,644 hectares referred to by the government as the Central Government Core Area, ring two covering an area of 42,000 hectares referred to by the government as the National Capital Region (IKN), and ring three covering an area of 133,321 hectares called the government as the National Capital Expansion Area.
The New Capital City Mega Project will benefit the company owned by the Bakrie Family which is widely known by the public as the strongest and richest family in Indonesia. The Bakrie family owns the largest mining company in Indonesia, PT Bumi Resources, Tbk. (BUMI) through its subsidiary PT. Kaltim Prima Coal (KPC) plans to build a new power plant, in line with the relocation of Indonesia’s new capital to East Kalimantan. PT KPC has a coal mine in the Sangatta area, 170 kilometers (km) from Samarinda or around 260 km from the area that will be the new capital.
Sites for the New Capital City appear to be overlapping or concessions (granting rights, permits or land by the government, companies, individuals or other legal entities). Noted, there are around 162 concessions, and most of them are for coal mining and pulpwood plantation concessions. And there are some concessions whose permits will not expire for another 20 years.
Among the companies with concessions are those affiliated with wood and palm billionaire Sukanto Tanoto. Among Tanoto’s many businesses is Asia Pacific Resources International Holdings (APRIL), the second largest pulp and paper company in Indonesia. APRIL’s subsidiary, PT International Timber Corporation Indonesia Hutani Manunggal (ITCI HM), currently manages a pulpwood plantation in a new capital location that overlaps with 5,644 hectares (13,950 hectares) of land where the government plans to build a new office complex.
Taipan Hashim Djojohadikusumo, brother of Prabowo Subianto, a twice-presidential presidential candidate and current defense minister, also still controls 173,400 ha (428,500 hectares) of concessions in the New Capital City through his company, PT International Timber Corporation Indonesia Kartika Utama, representing more areas big city of Los Angeles.
PT Adaro Energy Tbk (ADRO) is the second largest coal mining company that has a mining area in East Kalimantan, through PT Bhakti Energi Persada (BEP). With Garibaldi Thohir as President Director, and Sandiaga Uno (Entrepreneur and Vice President in the 2019 Presidential Election together with Prabowo) owning 15 percent of Adaro’s shares.
BEP has 15 subsidiaries, seven of which have mining business permits (IUP) for an area of 34 thousand hectare that have not been developed in Muara Wahau district (East Kalimantan). The location is about 250 kilometers north of Balikpapan and 120 kilometers to the coast. Coal reserves for this concession area are estimated at 7.96 billion tons.
PT. ITCI Kartika Utama also has 42,000 hectares of land in the ring of two IKN areas owned by Hashim Djojohadikumo, sibling Prabowo Subianto (Presidential Election 2019). And under the auspices of the Arsari Group namely PT. Arsari Tirta Pradana in the form of an artificial dam or lake and SPAM (Drinking Water Supply System) which is planned to provide clean water sources for the needs of the new capital, North Penajam Paser Regency and Kutai Kartanegara Regency.
President Jokowi is also still optimistic that by 2024, at the end of his term of office, as phase 1 all executive bodies have been successfully transferred to IKN, following the second phase transfer, the government will build other facilities such as stations, universities, and non-ministerial offices or institutions high.
On this occasion, the Report Indonesia team also asked the Young Entrepreneurs of Bakrie Group, Arya Bakrie, for their responses and hopes.
“The relocation of the capital city is a good plan and is required to have a good impact on the surrounding population,” concluded Arya
