A privately operated airport inside one of the world’s largest nickel-processing hubs has ignited a national debate over sovereignty and regulatory oversight in Indonesia, after senior officials alleged the facility runs without full supervision from the central government.
Infrastructure
In this first step, the Seamless Corridor means eligible travellers arriving at Jakarta and Surabaya no longer need to present documents when they enter the country.
Indonesia’s capital, Jakarta, is the world’s largest urban centre with a population of almost 42 million, according to new research by the United Nations.
State funding for the project has plunged, while construction has slowed and few civil servants have been eager to move away from Jakarta
Kampungs – dense, organic settlements that house millions of Indonesia’s urban poor – have long been stigmatised as in official and cultural discourses, making them easy targets for eviction in the name of “development”.
Syamsul Arifin, who teaches the sociology of religion at Muhammadiyah University in the nearby city of Malang, explained that Islamic boarding schools like Al-Khoziny play an important role in conservative religious communities, and it is against this backdrop that the reluctance to attribute blame must be understood.
The Indonesia Investment Authority is prioritising digital infrastructure, healthcare and renewables as the sovereign wealth fund seeks foreign partners and supports the nation’s economic development, its chief investment officer told Reuters.
In May, Indonesia’s state-owned electricity monopoly, PLN, vowed to increase its complement of natural gas power plants as part of a gambit, it said, to make its power supply cleaner and more reliable.
The plan has drawn sharp criticism from experts and activists who question its methods, costs and potential impact on vulnerable communities.
A year after it was inaugurated, Indonesia’s would-be new capital Nusantara attracts tourists and construction workers, but most of its architecturally arresting presidential palace and freshly built avenues sit silent.
The Indonesian leader unveiled on Monday the so-called Java North Coast Authority Body, dedicated to overseeing the region locally known as “Pantura Jawa”. This is a term that Indonesians use to refer to the northern coastline of its most populous island, Java.
I let the Indonesian tourists watch me, maybe jealous, as I float on my back in the otherworldly waters of Pulau Bair, a remote, uninhabited islet on the northernmost fringe of Kei Kecil, the smallest of the two main Kei Islands — an archipelago of about 250 islets, some of East Indonesia’s lesser-known gems.
People tend to make decisions based on habit, convenience or incentives, rather than purely rational cost-benefit analysis. In Indonesia’s case, instant rewards like e-wallet cashback or the speed of BI-FAST make digital options feel easier and smarter, even if users do not always consider long-term trade-offs.
One of the longest Pelni routes departs from the capital Jakarta in Java to Jayapura, West Papua, making a 4390km journey in a week — something comparable to navigating the distance between London and Herat in Afghanistan.
Indonesia is pushing ahead with the feasibility study for a high-speed rail line connecting Jakarta and Surabaya in East Java, with the government stressing that planning must be comprehensive, sustainable, and backed by robust financing, Chief Infrastructure and Regional Development Minister Agus Harimurti Yudhoyono said on Saturday.
They warned that the programme could suffer the same fate as a failed Suharto-era policy, which was riddled with mismanagement and corruption practices. Based on the number of cooperatives set up, current President Prabowo Subianto’s programme is nine times bigger than the country’s second president’s.
