Indonesian President Formally Offers To Parliament To Relocate Capital To Kalimantan

Indonesian President Joko Widodo formally proposed to the country's parliament on Friday to relocate the Indonesian capital from Jakarta to Kalimantan on the island of Borneo

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 16th August, 2019) Indonesian President Joko Widodo formally proposed to the country's parliament on Friday to relocate the Indonesian capital from Jakarta to Kalimantan on the island of Borneo.

After the Indonesian government announced in April plans to relocate the capital from Jakarta due to overpopulation of the island of Java, National Development Planning Minister Bambang Brodjonegoro said in June that the relocation process would start in 2021, adding that it could take up to 10 years.

"I ask the council of representatives of regions, elders and other prominent representatives of the society and the Indonesian people to relocate our national capital to Kalimantan," Widodo said in his address to the parliament, commemorating the upcoming 74th anniversary of Indonesian independence, as quoted by CNN Indonesia.

The possibility of relocating the Indonesian capital from the island of Java was first raised almost 60 years ago, under the government of Sukarno, the nation's first president.

Kalimantan is the Indonesian portion of Borneo, Asia's largest island. Kalimantan, divided into five provinces, comprises over 70 percent of the island's territory.