The President made no mention of the country’s future capital city under construction in East Kalimantan in his State of the Nation address last Friday.
President Prabowo Subianto (center) talks with Vice President Gibran Rakabuming Raka (right) and former President Joko Widodo before the ceremony commemorating the 81st anniversary of Indonesia’s independence at the State Palace in Jakarta on Aug. 17, 2026. (Antara/Bayu Pratama S)
A lack of top-level public endorsement of Nusantara has clouded the future capital’s commercial prospects as investors hold back while waiting for the government to deliver on its promises to move people and economic activity from Jakarta to the new city in East Kalimantan.President Prabowo Subianto made no mention of the megaproject’s development in his State of the Nation address last Friday or when presenting the 2027 state budget plan to the House of Representatives later that day.
The 2027 state budget bill circulated by the government on Monday earmarks Rp 6.7 trillion (US$377 million) for the Nusantara Capital City (IKN) Authority, up from Rp 6.3 trillion this year, but a fraction of the Rp 89 trillion spent on the project from 2022 to 2024 under the administration of then-president Joko “Jokowi” Widodo.
