Jakarta (voinews): President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) has expressed his gratitude and appreciation to the Malay-Banjar community for their support in the development of Indonesia’s Nusantara Capital City (IKN) in East Kalimantan Province.

At a mass prayer of the Malay-Banjar community in Tabalong District, South Kalimantan Province, on Friday, he said that he expected the Malay-Banjar people to actively contribute to the establishment of IKN and become an important part of the historic event.

Furthermore, he noted that the construction of IKN had commenced. Currently, the Public Works and Public Housing (PUPR) Ministry is building the basic infrastructure, state palace, as well as ministry offices in the area.

The government’s aim in establishing the IKN is not only to physically transfer Indonesia’s capital city from Jakarta to Nusantara but also to develop new work ethics and mindset on the implementation of public services, the president emphasized.

"(We want to improve our method on) how to serve the community with new ways of working by serving them well and quickly, and we also want to change the (work) mindset, so we can compete with other countries," he remarked.

It is not easy to be able to compete with other nations nowadays since several countries are competing to secure as many investments and regional traffic opportunities as possible, he pointed out.

Hence, Jokowi was grateful that Indonesia’s economic growth in 2022 was able to reach 5.3 percent at a time when the economic growth of several other countries was slumping.

Nonetheless, Indonesia needs new strategies to be able to compete with other countries, Jokowi stressed.

"The competition between countries is not easy and simple, so if we do not come up with new strategies to compete, we will lose and remain a developing country," he stressed.

He noted that several countries in Latin America and Asia remained developing countries for 50 to 70 years, as they did not dare to change their work mindset and optimized the development of their human resources. (Antaranews)