🇮🇩🇨🇳 Indonesia Weighs Kalimantan Rail Backing

Indonesia is exploring foreign investment for the 2,772km Trans-Kalimantan railway, with China and Russia identified by Transport Minister Dudy Purwagandhi as interested parties, according to state media reporting. The planned network would run across Kalimantan, Indonesia’s part of Borneo, where the resource-rich region includes Nusantara, the country’s planned new capital, but currently has no operational public railway system.

The project follows completion of the Jakarta-Bandung high-speed line, built by Chinese state contractors, which Indonesian analysts cited as proof of China’s engineering capacity and ability to provide financing, technology, and integrated rail supply chains. At the same time, negotiations are expected to be cautious after the high-speed line accumulated heavy debt and a proposed underground metro project in Bali faced delays, making cost and financing terms central to any new deal.

For Jakarta, the railway fits a longer-term expansion plan through 2045 aimed at linking disparate parts of Kalimantan. For Beijing, it would extend its infrastructure footprint in a strategically important Indonesian region.

#Indonesia #China

@asianomics