Jakarta. President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo said that more investors would likely come into the new capital Nusantara thanks to Indonesia’s deposit insurance office which broke ground on Wednesday.

The Indonesia Deposit Insurance Corporation or LPS’s office building in Nusantara is now a work in progress. As the name suggests, the LPS is in charge of protecting Indonesian depositors’ deposits. Jokowi is hoping that the LPS project will convince investors to take part in the $33 billion capital relocation as the construction work of the city’s financial ecosystem gets underway.

“I hope that the LPS project will hopefully boost people’s confidence [towards Nusantara]. Businesses and investors will hopefully be more confident as well. Because if LPS already began [its construction], that would convince others that we will be able to make this new capital come true,” Jokowi said when launching the LPS office groundbreaking ceremony.

The LPS office complex project, which will be called the Arthadyaksa, will start off with a building for the corporation’s main operations. They will eventually work on two other buildings and other facilities.

“The name ‘Arthadhyaksa’ means ‘protector of customer’s wealth,” Jokowi said.

The LPS office is part of the fourth-phase groundbreaking series in the new capital. During his trip, Jokowi also launched the construction of the city’s authority body office worth approximately Rp 509 billion ($32.6 million). Hospitality firm Jambuluwuk also commenced the construction of its Rp 300 billion five-star hotel.

Jokowi did not mention how much it would cost to build the LPS office from scratch during the ceremony. However, Agung Wicaksono, a deputy at the Nusantara authority body, recently told a virtual press briefing that the LPS project would not use the state budget.

“Bank Indonesia, LPS, as well as OJK [Financial Services Authority] are the three pillars of Indonesia’s financial sector. ... We have seen Bank Indonesia’s [broke ground on its Nusantara office] and now we have LPS. All that remains is the OJK. But we are saving it [OJK’s groundbreaking ceremony] for later as the next big surprise,” Agung told a virtual presser on Tuesday. 

Bank Indonesia, the country’s central bank, already began constructing its head office in Nusantara last November.

The capital authority body reported that it had garnered 328 letters of intent from interested domestic and foreign investors as of mid-December 2023.