Moeldoko Explains Positive And Negative Impacts Of IKN-Brunei High Speed Train Development

Presidential Chief of Staff Moeldoko. (Photo: Doc. Antara)

JAKARTA - Presidential Chief of Staff Moeldoko expressed the positive and negative impact of Brunei Darussalam's plan to build a high-speed train to the State Capital (IKN) of the Archipelago.

"For me connectivity is something. But what must be remembered is that this is a border, in any country the border always brings a situation where there needs to be awareness because there is human mobility, the mobility of goods that occur there," said Moeldoko, in Jakarta, quoted from Antara, Friday, April 5.

He said the discourse was related to bilateral and multilateral relations in order to deal with various problems that arose from border areas.

Moeldoko personally assessed that the presence of the high-speed train was a good discourse in an effort to connect the human transportation sector and goods from Indonesia to Brunei Darussalam, as well as crossing countries.

"In my opinion, it is good personally that there is a connectivity, getting closer, so that later goods in Indonesia can quickly go to Brunei, then connect Brunei Darussalam even though they stop in Malaysia. Next it will facilitate human mobility, mobility of goods," he said again.

Meanwhile, on the other hand, said Moeldoko, the presence of land transportation modes in the country's border areas always brings a dilemma.

"One side is positive, but the other side is also negative. It makes it easier for smuggling, weapons, drugs, people without us to examine and so on," he also said.

Apart from that negative side, said Moeldoko, the presence of the Brunei Darussalam-IKN high-speed train can bring great benefits to the economic sector as well as its supply chain in an effort to strengthen existing relations between countries.

The Brunei Darussalam company, which focuses on building a major infrastructure project, Brunergy, is driving growth in Kalimantan, one of the ideas is to realize the operations of the Brunei Darussalam-IKN high-speed train.

The Indonesian government has confirmed that it will build train facilities in IKN, although it has not confirmed that it will join the high-speed rail megaproject with neighboring countries.