JAKARTA - Former Head of the National Development Planning Agency Andrinof Chaniago said the state capital (IKN) in Kalimantan was a new engine for the long journey of the Republic of Indonesia.
Andrinof said that Kalimantan would definitely become a new engine for Indonesia's long journey considering that the island of Borneo would become Indonesia's new foundation in the future.
"As long as we are all committed to economic transformation, Indonesia will experience a leap from Kalimantan. A leap through a development paradigm that is changed and innovated through data," he said, quoted from Antara, Saturday, February 12.
Andrinof, who is also the Founder of the Indonesia 2033 Vision Team, criticized a number of figures or scientists who argued that they had not yet received an academic manuscript and thus blamed various aspects in planning for the transfer of IKN so that they had opinions that were not based on sufficient data and erroneous conclusions.
He considers a number of figures who reject the transfer of IKN to Kalimantan to be unfounded because it is just a mere concern.
In fact, he said, it was not difficult for them to get data and documents about IKN, where many prominent figures got exclusive data and documents about the big plan to move the capital city to outside Java.
"Don't be without data because you are lazy to hunt for data, then you have opinions and many take refuge from the words 'I suspect, I'm worried' about IKN in Kalimantan. Ordinary people are influenced by things that are not based on data," he said.
Those who refused to move IKN to Kalimantan, also called Andrinof, were not familiar with the island which has an area of 743,330 square kilometers, even though according to him, Kalimantan is very worthy of being the new capital city with a myriad of potentials.
"It is clear that the location is very strategic in the middle of Indonesia and in the middle of the Asia Pacific. Kalimantan's economy can move from an economy that exploits natural resources to an economy based on science and technology, as well as a tourism economy," he said.
For the tourism sector, for example, if the area shifts from a mining economy to a tourism economy, cities that are traversed by major rivers in Kalimantan can be like Shanghai, Bangkok, Melbourne, or "water front cities" in Europe.
"It is a healthy economy and at the same time a foreign exchange earner. The economy is shifting from destroying nature to caring for nature because tourism raises awareness of the environment," he said.
The figure who was also the initiator of the relocation of the capital city explained that it was clearly a big mistake to imagine from afar that Kalimantan was just the remains of a damaged forest, because moving IKN would bring Kalimantan social and economic transformation because Kalimantan is very promising for Indonesia's future glory.
"If there are people who look down on Kalimantan, I make sure that there are not many picnics in the country, if you don't know it, you don't love it. Borneo is Indonesia's future glory," he said.
He is not surprised that Indonesia's grand plan has made neighboring Malaysia already set off to welcome investment plans not only in the trade, services and tourism sectors.
Kalimantan has great potential for the maritime industry, mineral-based industries to rubber-based industries.
"Energy to drive engines and lighting is also abundant. Coal, as long as it doesn't continue to be exploited on a large scale to be sold abroad like now, then the age of the deposit can be more than 100 years for its own needs. Not to mention the hydro power source in Kaltara which has more potential of 6,000 megawatts," he said.
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