![A general view of skyscrapers is pictured during sunset in Jakarta on April 2, 2019. [Photo: AFP]](http://img2.zhytuku.meldingcloud.com/images/zhycms_chinaplus/20190429/ded9d98a-587a-4582-b321-eb1ecc9668a9.jpg?x-oss-process=image/resize,w_650)
Indonesia’s decades long discussion about building a new capital has inched forward after President Joko Widodo approved a long-term plan for the government to abandon overcrowded, sinking and polluted Jakarta.
Planning Minister Bambang Brodjonegoro says Widodo decided at a special Cabinet meeting Monday to move the capital outside of Indonesia’s most populous island, Java.
The site for a new capital hasn’t been announced but Palangkaraya on the island of Borneo has often been rumored as the favored location.
Brodjonegoro said a new capital would require an area of 30,000 to 40,000 hectares (about 74,000 to 99,000 acres) and have a population of up to 1.5 million.
Jakarta has a population of about 30 million in its greater metropolitan area.
