World’s Largest Muslim Nation Faces A Fear: Its New Capital Could Turn Into a Ghost City – Here’s Why | World News
Jakarta: Indonesia’s plan to build a new capital in the jungles of Borneo now faces a threat. Designed as a modern symbol of progress, Nusantara (the proposed capital) risks becoming a ghost town. Former President Joko Widodo floated the idea of moving the capital from overcrowded Jakarta to a new, greener location by 2030.
But today Nusantara’s wide roads are mostly lined with empty, half-finished future government buildings. Apart from a few gardeners and curious visitors, there is little life in what should be the heart of the new Indonesia.
According to The Guardian, the situation worsened after President Prabowo Subianto took office in October. His administration cut state funding for Nusantara by more than half. The project generated approximately 2 billion British pounds of revenue in 2024. In 2025, this amount dropped to 700 million pounds. Only £300m for next year, a third of the requested funding, has been approved. Private investment also fell short, missing the target by more than £1 billion.
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President Prabowo has not visited the city even once since taking office. In May, it designated Nusantara as the “political capital” of Indonesia, but the decision was made public only four months later.
Meanwhile, both the president and vice president of the agency overseeing the project resigned in 2024, raising doubts about its future.
There are currently approximately 2,000 government employees and 8,000 construction workers in Nusantara; This figure is far from the target of reaching 1.2 million population by 2030.
The city already has apartment towers, ministry buildings, roads, hospitals, water systems and even an airport. But most of it is under construction. Academics say the uncertain aspect of the project casts a long shadow.
Hardiansyah Hamzah, a constitutional law expert at Mulawarman University in East Kalimantan, said the project was already starting to resemble a “ghost town”. He added that the new “political capital” title has no real legal meaning in Indonesian law and that the city is clearly “not a priority for President Prabowo”.
What was once planned as a futuristic showcase for the world’s largest Muslim country now stands half-built and eerily quiet. His fate hangs between ambition and abandonment.
