Jakarta. PBNU -- the executive board of Indonesia’s largest Islamic organization Nahdlatul Ulama -- is planning to invest in the country’s planned future capital Nusantara.

PBNU unveiled the plans to the press right after meeting President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo at the State Palace in Jakarta on Thursday. According to PBNU’s chairman Yahya Cholil Staquf, the group is planning to buy 100 hectares of land in the yet-to-be-built city. 

“If God is willing, we want to buy land up to 100 hectares at the new capital,” Yahya told reporters.

Yahya revealed that PBNU would use the land to set up educational, healthcare, and religious facilities, among other things. The religious group will likely spend trillions of rupiahs to make the investment, although they still have not decided how much they would invest.

“Mr. President has already approved [our plan]. We will soon communicate with the Nusantara authorities. If God is willing, we do hope that we can realize this plan as soon as possible,” Yahya said.

He added: “But we are still making the calculations [on how much we should invest]. Perhaps we will need between Rp 2 trillion and Rp 3 trillion [approximately $191.6 million].”

PBNU also tried to dispel doubts over the megaproject, saying that the construction is in progress. President Jokowi also already inked a law on Nusantara in 2022, thus giving the new capital project a legal basis.

“We have seen buildings [in Nusantara] reaching completion, and the construction is ongoing. We believe that [the capital relocation] is important for us to realize,” Yahya said.

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