VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Jakarta. Success in addressing the COVID-19 pandemic is one of the prerequisites to the development of the new Indonesian capital in East Kalimantan Province, according to National Development Planning Minister Suharso Monoarfa.

"Several requirements must be fulfilled before developing the new capital city. One of them is how we deal with the pandemic. The key performance indicator of success is a decline in the number of people contracting the coronavirus," he said during an online interview with ANTARA in Jakarta on Wednesday.

A flattening of the curve of COVID-19 cases is one of the prerequisites to the development of the new capital city, he informed.

To that end, the government is striving to achieve the target of inoculating one million people per day as part of efforts to build herd immunity, he added.

"Groundbreaking (for the construction of the new capital city) will be done after the prerequisites have been met. If the President asks me whether (the groundbreaking) can be done next week, I will first ensure that everything is well-equipped and well-treated," he continued.

Monoarfa, who is also head of the National Development Planning Agency (Bappenas), said the master plan for the development of the new capital city had been completed last year and the government is in the process of finalizing the detailed plan.

The minister is scheduled to visit the site for the new capital city next week to determine the zero point, which will become the location for the state palace.

Bappenas has assured that the construction of the Presidential palace in the new capital city will kick off this year and will be completed in 2024, in accordance with the master plan. (Antaranews)