Symbols are important for both politics at the highest level and the official inauguration of a ground-breaking infrastructure project. The two came together when China’s President Xi Jinping and Indonesia’s President Joko Widodo jointly unveiled a plaque marking the official commercial launch of a China-built high-speed rail line linking Jakarta and Bandung, on 17 October 2023 in Beijing, at the Third International Forum for the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).
As China had touted the Jakarta-Bandung High-speed Railway (HSR) as the flagship project for China-Indonesia cooperation through the BRI, the railway stands for Widodo’s legacy of championing infrastructure development in Indonesia as he leaves office in October 2024. Besides its status as a signature and transformative project for Indonesia, the Jakarta-Bandung HSR also became the very first high-speed railway that China has built overseas with its own integrated system of design, engineering, equipment, technology and standards.
https://www.thinkchina.sg/bris-jakarta-bandung-high-speed-railway-high-costs-high-returns