Foreign Investors Withdraw From The IKN Mega Project, Director Of Celios: For Security's Sake, It's Better To Use The State Budget

The design of the state palace at IKN Nusantara. (Instagram/Nyoman_Nuarta )

JAKARTA - Center of Economic and Law Studies (Celios) Director Bhima Yudhistira assesses that there is no need for foreign investors to enter the new State Capital (IKN) project in East Kalimantan. According to Bhima, for the sake of state security, it must be funded with state money.

"Because the context is IKN, the full state budget should be full, this is also related to security and defense issues. There is no need for foreign investors," said Bhima when contacted by VOI, Sunday, March 13.

However, Bhima assesses that foreign investors who want to invest can be done in projects outside the new capital city.

"Investors enter properties outside of IKN," he said.

For your information, one of the foreign investors, a Japanese venture capital company named Softbank, has also officially withdrawn from the new IKN development project in East Kalimantan. The decision was known since Friday, March 11, 2022.

Softbank initially planned to invest up to 100 billion US dollars in the project. However, according to the government, 25 billion US dollars is enough. This is because the project development plan is already underway.

With Softbank's withdrawal, Bhima continued, it is better for the government to postpone the construction of new IKN projects. Moreover, the funds are very large.

"Because of the high cost, it is best to postpone the construction of IKN," he said.