JAKARTA: The government plans to accelerate realisation of foreign direct investment (FDI) commitments for the Nusantara Capital City (IKN) development project after the Constitutional Court issues its verdict in the electoral dispute later this month, says Investment Minister Bahlil Lahadalia.

“We have received a lot of commitments from foreign investors, but they did not materialise during the period of the general election. We can only count investments after they start building, not when they express an interest,” Bahlil said on Monday after a meeting with President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, as quoted by Kompas.com.

At an offline event with investors and bankers in early February, Jokowi acknowledged that businesses had adopted a “wait and see” approach prior to election day on Feb 14.Last November, he said that no foreign investments had been realised, but the government assured that the IKN project had generated many expressions of interest.

In March, the IKN Authority announced a plan to start working on 70 residential towers in the future capital this year through blended financing involving the state budget and investors in a public-private partnership.

The authority also said seven developers had received letters to proceed with their projects, including Perintis Triniti Properti (Triniti Land), Nindya Karya, Intiland and Ciputra Group, as well as the members of Nusantara Consortium that includes Indonesian conglomerates such as Salim Group, Sinarmas, Mulia Group and Astra Group as of this January.

Among the foreign developers are China’s state-owned CITIC Construction and Malaysia’s IJM Corp and Maxim Global.

“The total capital expenditure proposed by these firms is around 50 trillion rupiah (US$3.19bil), but the amount could change pending the feasibility study,” Agung Wicaksono, the IKN Authority’s funding and investment deputy, said in March.

Several investment projects unrelated to Nusantara are scheduled to break ground this year.

 - ANN