JAKARTADAILY.ID – The Lord Mayor of the City of London Vincent Keaveny is visiting Indonesia and meeting a number of government officials to discuss various topics, including how to strengthen trade and investment between Indonesia and London, the world's most international and connected financial center.
Keaveny has been in Indonesia since Monday, June 27, 2022. He is on a 2-day working visit until today.
During the first day of his visit to Southeast Asia's largest economy, he met with Bambang Susantono, the Head of the Nusantara Capital City (IKN) Authority, who welcomed the Lord Mayor of the City of London at the Ministry of State Secretariat office.
Keaveny and Bambang discussed investment opportunities at Penajam Paser Utara regency in East Kalimantan, which is the center of development of Indonesia's new capital, Nusantara.
Indonesia, the biggest economy in Southeast Asia, is seen as an attractive destination for global investors in the future, Keaveny said.
The city of London is ready to help Indonesia to get the required capital for its 'green' and infrastructure development. Various government officials have said the world's fourth most populous nation needs up to Rp 500 trillion ($33.7 billion) for its ambitious IKN project, which will move the capital city of Jakarta to Penajam Paser Utara.
Keaveny also expressed his interest to bring education institutions from London to the planned new capital of Indonesia. He said in October he will come back to meet the IKN Authority to talk about this matter further.
The IKN Authority head Bambang Susantono welcomed the various interests of the Lord Mayor of the City of London to help Indonesia.
"The initiative (by the government of Indonesia) to develop IKN received positive response from the private sector, various governments as well as foreign companies. In our development plan to build IKN, we learn a lot from capital cities all over the world, one of which is London, England," Bambang Susantono said in a statement on Monday.
"Expression of interest from the Mayor of the City of London opens opportunities for us to get financing and investments. These are one of our priorities to ensure that developments (of IKN) can be executed in accordance with the plans," Bambang said.
He said Indonesia's government is hoping that the plan to move out of its capital to the new location will run smoothly so that the government can be more focused on serving the people.
Also read: Indonesians Must Register to Buy Petralite and Diesel Fuel as of July 1st
Owen John Jenkins, the British Ambassador to Indonesia and East Timor said Indonesia offers great potential to attract investment from the United Kingdom.
