Home>News & Insights>Publications>Indonesia's new capital: mapping a development boomIndonesia’s new capital: mapping a development boom CEIC Publications CEIC 17.03.2026 1 min read Indonesia is building a new capital on Borneo’s east coast. The construction of Nusantara aims to spearhead development in the archipelago nation’s less developed Kalimantan provinces and relocate the administrative apparatus from the congested megacity of Jakarta. The first civil servants will have moved by the end of this year, four years after the project’s inception. To visualize the scope of this project, we’ve tapped our granular, sub-regional data to examine investment across Kalimantan. Nusantara is being built adjacent to Balikpapan, an oil-industry hub that is already Kalimantan’s most economically important city; to capture the investment boom, Balikpapan’s figures are the ones to watch. As our graphic shows, Balikpapan’s most recent 12-month domestic realized investment figure (that is, spending that has been implemented, not just planned or approved) surpassed IDR 7 trillion (the equivalent of about USD 412 million). That’s more than three times the level for second-place Samarinda, also in East Kalimantan. Investment for both cities dwarfs the major settlements for North, West and South Kalimantan respectively (Tarakan, Pontianak and Banjarbaru), which we’ve also labeled on our map. We’ve also added West Java, which includes Jakarta, to give a relative sense of this spending versus Indonesia’s traditional economic engine. We’ve specified domestic investment in our map because foreign investment on Kalimantan trails behind Java and Sumatra (Sumatera) so far. Our second chart combines the two streams to compare the major islands (again, on a realized investment basis). The economy of Sumatera, the nation’s biggest island region by area, benefits from its proximity to major shipping lanes. We conclude with two more map views of domestic and foreign investment by province. As we have written before, Central Sulawesi’s nickel processing-driven boom stands out in FDI terms; North Maluku has also seen an influx of nickel-driven overseas investment. If you are a CEIC user, access the story here. If you are not a CEIC client, explore how we can assist you in generating alpha by registering for a trial of our product: https://hubs.la/Q02f5lQh0 Tags ASEANEmerging Marketsreal estateRecent Posts China's inflation uptick as "Two Sessions" favors consumer-driven growth CEIC 17.03.2026 Publications China recently concluded its "Two Sessions" meetings, a key forum for policy-setting. Similarly to last year, domestic-driven demand and consumption Read More London's housing unaffordability persists despite rate relief and flat market CEIC 17.03.2026 Publications London property is getting cheaper, but that has resulted in limited relief for first-time homebuyers Read More ASEAN currencies have been resilient despite the oil spike CEIC 17.03.2026 Publications With many Asian countries dependent on oil imported from the Persian Gulf, we're examining how currencies in the ASEAN bloc have reacted to the current geopolitical crisis. Read More Sorry, no articles match the current filters. Sorry, no articles match the current search query.