JAKARTA – Indonesia’s President-elect Prabowo Subianto said he is committed to “continue, and if possible finish” the new capital, dispelling uncertainty as to whether the incoming leader will abandon the multibillion-dollar project of his predecessor to pursue his own policy agenda.

       Mr Prabowo, who will be sworn in as the country’s eighth president in October, estimated that the new capital will be “functionally running” in four or five years, he told reporters on Aug 12 on the sidelines of a visit to the new capital city called Nusantara.

       He and incumbent President Joko Widodo are inspecting the new capital ahead of Independence Day celebrations scheduled to be held at the area on Aug 17. Some political observers and economists have questioned whether Mr Prabowo will continue the new capital project given that his focus will be to allocate funding towards his welfare policies.

       Mr Jokowi, as the President is known, will also lead his first-ever full Cabinet meeting in the new capital on Aug 12. He brought dozens of top-ranking officials, including Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati, for the meeting in the new city, built inside the Borneo jungle and more than 1,200km north-east of Jakarta.

       The outgoing President has been trying to quell doubts over the US$35 billion (S$46.3 billion) project’s future ever since the new capital’s chief resigned in June. With slow progress and no binding foreign investment, Mr Jokowi ramped up site visits and pushed out new policies to build as much as possible before his term ends.

       He had invited local celebrities and led a smaller Cabinet meeting in Nusantara in July, when he also for the first time used the office and slept at the new presidential palace. This time around, he will stay over for three days, fly back to Jakarta to deliver a major speech on Aug 16, then fly again to Nusantara for Independence Day.

       Despite Mr Jokowi’s visits, Nusantara is not yet legally the nation’s capital until the president issues a decree transferring the status from Jakarta. BLOOMBERG

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