Jokowi Intensively Searches For IKN Investors, Former Head Of Bappenas: If The Business City Goal Is Not Right

Former Minister of National Development Planning/Head of Bappenas for the 2014-2015 period Andrinof Chaniago. (Photo: Theresia Agatha/VOI)

JAKARTA - Former Head of Bappenas Andrinof Chaniago said that the efforts of the Joko Widodo (Jokowi) government to attract as many investors as possible to the State Capital (IKN), East Kalimantan, were inappropriate.

Andrinof assessed that if IKN is used as a business city, it is an inappropriate goal in the future.

"The point is now, how come we are aggressively looking for investors? Now we are criticizing. That's not it. Because it is not the right goal to make IKN a business city," he told reporters at the PUPR Ministry Building, Jakarta, Wednesday, August 14.

For this initial stage, Adrinof assessed that IKN could only become a business city that serves the needs of goods and services from ASN and government activities.

"It's not that it's a separate business area. Pull investors, look for the market. So, the property business area," he said.

If IKN's goal in the future as a business center, said Adrinof, it will only repeat old stories such as when building the Bumi Serpong Damai (BSD) property area in Serpong, South Tangerang, which is a 5-minute city for the needs of the upper middle class.

"There is no public transportation there, flats (Rusun), public space for children. In terms of cities, it is called cities. We want to build that antithesis," he added.

Currently, Jokowi is aggressively looking for foreign investors to invest in IKN.

This is reflected in the various regulations that have been signed by him.

Most recently, Jokowi officially formed a Task Force for the Acceleration of Investment in the Capital City of the Archipelago (IKN).

The task force was formed after Jokowi signed Presidential Decree (Keppres) Number 25 of 2024 which was issued on Monday, August 5.

Based on a copy of the Presidential Decree seen by VOI, there were nine tasks carried out by the Task Force.

Starting from encouraging increased policy coordination between the Capital Archipelago Authority and related ministries/agencies and partner areas, aligning land acquisition, planning development and spatial planning as well as developing and utilizing land for priority investment activities in the capital city of the archipelago to encourage the creation of coordination of supervision and control of the implementation of investment activities in IKN.