Jokowi: If America Owns New York and Washington DC, Indonesia Owns Jakarta and IKN Nusantara

President Jokowi. (doc. BPMI Setpres-Muchlis Jr)

JAKARTA - President Joko Widodo said Jakarta and the National Capital (IKN) of Nusantara are one unit. Like any other large country, Indonesia will have two cities with different functions in terms of governance.

This was conveyed by Jokowi at the Opening of the 2023 XVIII PP Muhammadiyah Youth Conference in Balikpapan, East Kalimantan, Wednesday 22 February 2023.

"Indonesia is a big country, so if America has New York and Washington DC; Australia has Melbourne and Sydney, why doesn't Indonesia have Jakarta and Indonesia?", said Jokowi, monitored by the YouTube Secretariat of the President.

Jokowi said the country which concentrates two large cities respectively for government and business has developed and is fairly advanced. The government has patented this plan in the midst of moving the capital city.

However, Jokowi said the main reason the government centre was moved to Nusantara in East Kalimantan was due to the mission of equal distribution. For a long time, many people have considered Jakarta-centric because the area functions as a city of commerce, business, government, entertainment and others.

"The main reason is equity", said Jokowi.

On the same occasion, Jokowi also mentioned the contents of his meeting with the European Union. Jokowi said Indonesia was open to exports and imports. However, he emphasized that this was not for the export of raw materials.

"But don't force us to export raw materials. We don't want it anymore. If you want to produce precursors, and solar panels, please come to Indonesia, we are open", said Jokowi.

The former governor of DKI Jakarta has even opened his hands to investors who want to work together or open factories in Indonesia. However, with the condition that the location of the company or factory remains in Indonesia.

"What are we lacking? You can work with companies in Indonesia, SOEs, set up your own in Indonesia, but your factory is in Indonesia, not in Europe", he said.