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Indonesia to hold international competition to design $33bn new capital

The government of Indonesia plans to hold an international design competition for the country’s new capital, set to be located in the Borneo province of East Kalimantan.

"Within the next four years, progress should be made on the new capital city. Therefore, we will start with a design contest for the new capital," public works and housing minister Basuki Hadimuljono told journalists at the Indonesian Contractors Association international conference on Friday.

The contest will be held in two stages. The first will be for Indonesian nationals, from which judges will choose the three best designs. This is expected to be completed within five months.

The ministry will then open the contest to international designers, who will be invited to improve the three selected designs.
The ministry is in the process of selecting seven to nine judges for the contest. Basuki said two had already been selected.

Basuki said the ministry was placing suitable importance on the design of the city – the unplanned growth of Jakarta in the 1960s was a textbook case of the problems brought by a lack of urban design.

He said: "It will be used for the next 50 to 100 years. We can’t regret it later. I am sure many people will be eager to contribute to the new capital city. Urban planners, architects and others will want to contribute. We will accommodate all of them through this contest," Basuki said.

The government expects the plan to cost around $33bn, more than half of which will be sourced from public-private partnership schemes, with construction to begin late next year.

Image: A school bus and fire truck crawl through traffic in Jakarta. The Indonesian government believes unplanned growth has led to urban chaos (Gunawan Kartapranata/CC BY-SA 4.0) 

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