Indonesia Invites Singapore in New Capital, Food Estate Projects

TheIndonesia.co - The Indonesian government is inviting Singapore to get involved in the development of new capital Nusantara that is set to become a long-term project.

During meeting with Singapore’s government officials, the Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan persuaded the neighbor country to take part in a number of projects in Indonesia, including new capital development, clean technology, and food estate.

According to Indonesian Ambassador to Singapore Suryopratomo, Pandjaitan proposed the idea to Singapore PM Lee Hsien Loong and Coordinating Minister for National Security Teo Chee Hean on Monday, March 21, as reported by Antara.

According to plan, during the development’s initial phase until 2024, Indonesia aims to independently build the infrastructures. However, as it’s a long-term project that will continue until 2045, Indonesia is inviting foreign investors to further develop the city of Nusantara.

“We expect Singapore to take part like Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and China who will invest in the new capital,” Pandjaitan said.

Meanwhile, the state representatives also discussed potential cooperation in research- and technology-based food development that can significantly increase national productivity.

“Indonesia has started the project and has thousands of hectares of land in South Sumatra and Central Sulawesi for food estate purposes. If Singapore is interested to be involved, we can grow this together,” Pandjaitan said, offering Coordinating Minister Teo Chee Hean to visit Indonesia and see the prepared land.

Lastly, the two countries also examined potential bilateral agreements on technological development to respond to climate change. The discussion resulted on four sectors that will be developed by the countries, which are price and market determination for carbon; nature-based solution and ecosystem-based approach; clean technology and its solutions; as well as green and balanced finance.

“Besides these four sectors, I also proposed the establishment of task force that will focus on the development of lithium battery for electric cars and research for food estate development. Indonesia has abundant resource for the two aspects while Singapore has strong research and development as well as finance,” Pandjaitan explained.

On March 20-22, Pandjaitan is in Singapore to talk about bilateral cooperation on various sectors as an effort by the neighboring countries to tackle climate change issues.