Indonesia is a huge archipelago country, sitting comfortably in the Southeast Asia.
The vast area is occupies has given it a lot of advantages. But some of those advantages come with disadvantages.
One of which, is its capital in Jakarta, located in Java, an island lying between Sumatra and Bali, a geographic and economic center of Indonesia, and home to more than half of the country's more than 270 million population.
This makes Jakarta both one of the most-populated cities in the world, and one of the most rapidly-sinking cities in the world.
Among other reasons, President Joko Widodo envisions the construction of a new capital, called the Nusantara Capital City, in Kalimantan (Borneo), as a nostrum for the problems plaguing Jakarta.
To start new, means to start fresh.
This allows Indonesia to have new opportunities.
And this is why Indonesia is building its new capital as a city Jakarta could never be: being a "sustainable forest city." The goal is to make environment at the heart of the city's development, with aims to be carbon-neutral by 2045.
Another goal, is to make the new capital a more-modern city.
For this purpose, the Nusantara Capital City (IKN Nusantara) Authority is partnering with technology companies to materialize the smart city concept.
For starters, officials have signed a memorandum of understanding with Microsoft to develop a smart city concept in IKN Nusantara.
This agreement was signed in San Francisco, California, U.S., ahead of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) High-Level Conference on November 14.
Deputy for Digital and Green Transformation Mohammed Ali Berawi represented the IKN Nusantara Authority, while Regional Vice President and Chief Legal Counsel Asia Corporate External and Legal Affairs Mike Yeh represented Microsoft.
By making IKN Nusantara a smart city, Indonesia plans to make the capital one of the country's economic growth centers.
"This transformation is one of our goals," said IKN Nusantara Authority Head Bambang Susantono, who said that collaborations with digital technology companies are commendable.
"This aligns with the aspiration to make Nusantara one of Indonesia's economic growth centers. "
Besides Microsoft, the IKN Nusantara Authority collaborates with other technology companies like Cisco, ESRI, and Autodesk. Explorations are also being conducted with Meta, Facebook's parent company.
Jakarta is sinking at an alarming rate of up to 25 centimeters per year in some areas, making it the world’s fastest sinking city.
There are many causes of this. The first reason is groundwater pumping, which happened because more than 60% of Jakarta’s population relies on groundwater, which provides nearly two-thirds of the city’s water consumption. This is equivalent to over 600 million cubic meters of water being pumped from the ground annually.
This makes the ground beneath the cast city sink.
Then, Jakarta, a coastal city, is fighting rising sea levels by building sea walls. But these walls are already leaking.
The next reason, is the lack of infrastructure, caused by some inequalities of the country.
And lastly, Jakarta’s population density is among the highest in the world, is making the ground beneath the city to sustain heavy pressure.