Indonesian President Joko Widodo visited the country's planned new capital Nusantara on Thursday, where a new presidential office is being built, to demonstrate the progress of construction work at the site to the media.
According to Diana Kusumastuti, director general of human settlement at the Ministry of Public Works and Housing, the presidential office is halfway to completion one year after construction began, meaning work is ahead of schedule.
The president invited executives of major companies in the country along to the site so that they could inspect the progress being made on the development of the new city.
The completion of a toll road linking the nearby city of Balikpapan to Nusantara by the middle of next year should attract even more investors to the project, the president said.
"I am confident that those who are late to come here to invest will only be left behind," he said.
Around 10,000 construction workers are building government offices and other facilities in the first development phase of the government center, which covers 6,671 hectares out of a total 324,000 designated for the new city.
The new capital is expected to be completed by 2045.
