Adrinof Chaniago Worried That IKN Will Be Used As A Business City, Minister Suharso: No!

Minister of National Development Planning/Head of Bappenas Suharso Monoarfa. (Photo: Theresia Agatha/VOI)

JAKARTA - Minister of National Development Planning/Head of Bappenas Suharso Monoarfa opened his voice regarding the issue of the development of the capital city of Nusantara (IKN) which will be used like a business city.

Suharso immediately denied this. He said IKN would remain the new capital city of Indonesia.

"No, no. He (IKN) will remain the capital city of the country. Indeed, no one in the world has made and moved the capital city except like Indonesia," said Suharso when met by reporters at the Directorate General of Taxes Building, Ministry of Finance, Jakarta, Friday, August 16.

He considered that all parties should be proud of the IKN development. Given, he said, the Indonesian government in building IKN is not playing games.

"That we have to be proud of and we make this city not play games. We are one city. Money is not for Indonesia, but for the world. That's why we are slowly doing it," said Suharso.

Suharso did not deny that so far what the government has been pursuing is infrastructure development to support the August 17 ceremony at IKN.

But in the future, he said, the government would measure the development even better.

"What we were chasing yesterday was design and build because of this time (for the August 17 ceremony). But, after this we will measure it well," he added.

Previously, the former Minister of National Development Planning/Head of Bappenas Andrinof Chaniago said that the efforts of the Joko Widodo (Jokowi) government to attract as many investors as possible to 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.