Erick Thohir Talks About The New Capital City, Salutes Jokowi

PHOTO VIA ANTARA/ SOE Minister Erick Thohir

JAKARTA - SOE Minister Erick Thohir talked about the plan for the New Capital City or IKN to be associated with the continued increase in Indonesia's population.

"I salute President Joko Widodo regarding the New Capital City. Why? The increase in Indonesia's population is very fast. Where are the 50 million additional people in Indonesia going? Do you want to go to Jakarta again? Want to go to Bandung again or another big city? You can't!" said Erick Thohir as quoted by Antara, Tuesday, June 1.

Erick Thohir said that there were two theories regarding the efforts to overcome the population growth carried out by two different countries.

First, the United States, how the small towns and villages in the country grew its economy. Columbia University campus itself stands in a village or small town, not in a big city. Meanwhile, China has another way of building new cities in its country.

According to Erick Thohir, these two ways are options. Then does Indonesia have to be like China, which is aggressively building all new capital cities and new cities? Indonesia is not necessarily strong in terms of its budget.

"So the choice is, of course we have to grow a new capital city, but growth points in villages and small towns in other areas must also be grown so that there is a balance. So balance is important," said Erick Thohir.

He added that currently the Indonesian people are asking the younger generation, most of them do not necessarily want to live in Jakarta.

Generally, they only want to stay in Jakarta if there is a chance.

Regarding vehicle transportation in big cities, Erick also gave another example that the city of London itself has decided that public vehicles must be electric vehicles by 2027.

It is possible that in the future there will be a large country where the car is already self-driving or autonomous, not using a driver.

"But is it because of this that we immediately give up and choose to continue using gasoline vehicles, even though the availability of gasoline will decrease in the future. This change must happen," said Erick Thohir.