Unfinished business: Indonesias new capital has long way to go [Video]

It was supposed to be the jewel in the crown of the 10-year presidency of Joko Widodo, but Indonesia’s capital-to-be, carved out of dense jungle in Borneo, is a vast building site just weeks before being due to open.

Bar the centrepiece presidential palace — winged like the national emblem, the mythical Garuda bird — Nusantara is a series of unfinished buildings and bumpy access tracks, shrouded by clouds of dust kicked up by trucks and excavators.

The new capital was expected to be inaugurated on August 17, Indonesia’s Independence Day, but building delays, funding woes — and even the unwillingness of those expected to relocate there — have cast doubt on its opening.

“Everything is still in progress,” Widodo conceded during a visit to the site this week.

“This is a job of 10, 15 or 20 years. Not just one, two or three years.”

The city-in-progress will still …