Indonesian president inaugurates $3bn ‘strategic’ port

JAKARTA: Indonesian President Joko Widodo inaugurated the Patimban sea port in West Java on Sunday, saying the new gateway would have a "strategic" role in boosting the nation's pandemic-hit economy.

The 43.2 trillion rupiah ($3.07 billion) port in the town of Subang, 140 km (90 miles) east of the capital Jakarta, is one of the government's priority infrastructure projects, designed to boost Southeast Asia's largest economy and relieve pressure on Jakarta's congested Tanjung Priok port.

Speaking via link from the state palace, the president, widely known as Jokowi, said the first of three phases of the strategic project in Indonesia's most populous province had been finished.