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STATE-OWNED Enterprises Minister Erick Thohir spoke about the plan for the State Capital or IKN to be associated with the continued increase in Indonesia’s population.
“I salute to Mr. President Joko Widodo regarding the New Capital. Why? The increase in Indonesia’s population is very fast. Where are the 50 million people in Indonesia going? Want to go to Jakarta again? Want to go to Bandung again or another big city? No!” said Erick Thohir as quoted in an interview on social media in Jakarta, Tuesday (1/6).
Erick said, there are two theories regarding the efforts to overcome the population increase carried out by two different countries.
“Firstly, the United States, how the small towns and villages in that country are grown economically. Columbia University campus itself stands in a village or small town, not in a big city. Meanwhile, China has another way, namely to build new cities in the country,” he stated.
According to Erick, these two methods are optional. Then does Indonesia have to be like China, which is aggressively building all new capital cities and new cities? Indonesia is not necessarily strong in terms of its budget.
“So the choice, of course, we have to grow a new capital city, but growth points in villages and small cities in other areas must also be grown so that there is a balance. So balance is important,” Erick Thohir explained.
He also added that currently the Indonesian people are asking the younger generation, most of them do not necessarily want to live in Jakarta. Generally, they only want to stay in Jakarta if there is a chance.
Regarding vehicle transportation in big cities, Erick also gave another example that the city of London itself has decided that public vehicles must be electric vehicles by 2027. It is possible that in the future there will be a large country where the car is already self-driving or autonomous, not using a driver.
“But is it because of this that we immediately give up and choose to continue using gasoline vehicles, even though the availability of gasoline will decrease in the future. This change must happen,” Erick Thohir concluded. [antaranews]
