Indonesia marked 79 years of independence on August 17, 2024 with a ceremony organised in the future capital of Nusantara.

• Indonesian President attended the Independence Day ceremony at the new Presidential Palace, built in the shape of the mythical eagle-winged protector figure Garuda.

About Nusantara

• Name: Nusantara is an old Javanese term that means ‘archipelago’
• Location: In East Kalimantan (located 2,300 kilometres from Jakarta)  on the eastern side of Borneo island, shared by Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei.
  • The new capital will be located in the North Penajam Paser and Kutai Kartanegara regions
• Area: 2,600 square km (1,000 square miles)
• Transfer of Power: Nusantara will be the new capital replacing Jakarta in the “first semester” of 2024
  • The construction of the new capital began in mid-2022
  • All of Indonesia’s government institutions is slated to move to East Kalimantan along with the offices and homes of civil servants and ministers. The presidential palace will also move to the new capital.
• Reason for Shift in Capital:
  • Limitations of Jakarta: Jakarta has reached its saturation  with about 10 million people in the city limits and three times that number in the greater metropolitan area
  • Economy: In Jakarta the congestion costs the economy an estimated $4.5 billion a year due urban flooding and clogging. 
  • Pollution: The air and groundwater in the old capital are heavily polluted with regular features in the Most polluted cities list
  • Sinking: Jakarta has been described as the world’s most rapidly sinking city. It is estimated that one-third of the city could be submerged by 2050, because of uncontrolled groundwater extraction, as well as the rise of the Java Sea due to climate change.

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