JAKARTA (ANN/JAKARTA POST) – President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo has flown back to the country’s future capital in the jungles of East Kalimantan on Thursday to spend the remaining few weeks of his second and final term, the Presidential Secretariat confirmed in a statement.
Accompanying the President on his flight to Kalimantan were State Secretary Minister Pratikno, Cabinet Secretary Pramono Anung, Presidential Security Detail commander Maj. Gen. Achiruddin and the Presidential Secretariat’s Protocol, Press and Media Deputy Yusuf Permana.
“President Jokowi will return today to the office in Nusantara,” Yusuf said in the statement released on Thursday. He added that the President would be working in the new city until Oct 19, the day before he handed over the presidency to his successor Prabowo Subianto.
Presidential spokesperson Hasan Nasbi has previously said major construction on the new presidential palace in Nusantara was finished and ready to accommodate Jokowi until the end of his term in office.
The President had postponed his plans to relocate to Nusantara several times because a number of key infrastructure projects, including the airport, were not ready.
“[Once I move], if I want to go to Papua, it should be [from Nusantara Airport]. If I want to go to East Nusa Tenggara, it should be from Nusantara, and if I want to go to Aceh, it should also be from Nusantara,” Jokowi said late last month.
The President also said he would move immediately to the city upon completion of vital infrastructure.
Following his arrival in Nusantara on Thursday, Jokowi is scheduled to hold a meeting with representatives of the Indonesian Military (TNI) and National Police at the newly built Garuda Palace.
While the laws on relocating the national capital from Jakarta to Nusantara were enacted in 2021, a Presidential Decree on the formal transfer of Indonesia’s capital is yet to be issued.
“[The decree] can be issued by me or the new president,” Jokowi said in June.
