After an hour’s drive through the jungle of Borneo, you reach more jungle. Your rental van from the Balikpapan city airport shakes precariously, navigating a partial bridge washout. A roadside sign admonishes against poaching the endangered sun bears.

By hour three you’ve arrived at Indonesia’s new capital, which is due to start taking over from gridlocked, polluted and seaward-sinking Jakarta in 2028.

Welcome to Ibu Kota Nusantara, known locally as just Nusantara or IKN. Eventually, if all goes according to plan, it will be a brand new city housing the 287 million-person archipelago’s seat of government.

For now, it is still a jungle. But investors from China are clearing away a lot of that land to build the capital. Without them, the flora and fauna would keep a firm grip on the area.

Indonesian government figures show that Chinese investors had spent US$29 million during 2025 to develop pieces of the capital and committed US$3.08 billion more.The Chinese investors, a pillar for the new capital’s construction during a budget cut year, hope to cement long-term relations in the massive Southeast Asian market and most locals are keen to see what they can do.Specifically, Shenzhen-based investment group Delonix, the first Chinese firm to come aboard at IKN, is developing a mixed-use commercial project. Chinese tech hardware giant Huawei Technologies is working with local partners on “smart city” infrastructure, and Citic Construction is building homes.

Chinese firms are also taking part in road and tunnel construction work worth 27 trillion rupiah (US$1.57 billion) and mass transit projects for 28 trillion rupiah, according to data compiled by Asia-Pacific Economics.

‘The smell is awful’: Indonesian capital drowning in waste

‘The smell is awful’: Indonesian capital drowning in waste