Jakarta. Emaar Properties -- the Emirati real estate giant behind the Dubai skyscraper Burj Khalifa-- recently had an on-site visit to Indonesia’s new capital Nusantara.

Emaar Properties had its founder Mohamed Alabbar on this trip, according to a press statement issued on Monday. Hosting the Emaar boss were State-Owned Enterprise (SOE) Minister Erick Thohir alongside Nusantara authority body chief Bambang Susantono. The progress of the $33 billion megaproject apparently impressed Alabbar as he hinted at the possibility of investing in the future capital that lies in East Kalimantan.

“I have never realized the beauty of this land. … This is something really gorgeous. I really think the efforts [to come up] with such quality designs, the quality of the construction, and the speed are something I have never seen before. I can tell from now that this is going to be such a beautiful place,” Alabbar said.

“I wish you all the success. I hope one day we participate and contribute to this amazing achievement that you have,” Alabbar added.

Emaar developed the world’s largest tallest building Burj Khalifa. The skyscraper stands at over 828 meters tall and boasts more than 160 stories. Despite Erick’s presence, the press statement did not specify whether there were talks of Emaar possibly working with Indonesian SOEs for the Nusantara project.

Erick said that President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo had instructed the government to bring in foreign investors from around the world to speed up the city’s construction. “So hopefully, we can secure some investments from our friends here to spur our economic growth,” Erick said.

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is not on the list of Indonesia’s top foreign investors. Government data shows the UAE only ranked 40th out of 138 countries as Indonesia’s largest source of foreign direct investment in the first quarter of 2024. The UAE invested approximately $4.1 million in Indonesia over the said period, with the money going to 170 projects.

The government is only planning to fund 20 percent of the total costs of building Nusantara from scratch. The rest of the funding will come from the private sector.