Indonesia’s presidents have long hoped that spinning out the bureaucratic capital would jump-start the country’s struggling east: Jakarta generates 17% of the country's GDP. (Photo by Kosaku Mimura)

Indonesia chases a game-changer: moving the capital

Jokowi aims to do what predecessors couldn't as Jakarta overflows

SHOTARO TANI and ISMI DAMAYANTI, Nikkei staff writers

July 3, 2019 13:49 JST

JAKARTA -- Jakarta, Indonesia's sprawling capital city, is shorthand in Southeast Asia for the endemic challenges of emerging-market megacities -- gridlock, pollution and a chaotic approach to planning, where iron-roofed informal communities are sited next to gleaming luxury malls.