Indonesian authorities have halted development of a tourism project linked to U.S. President Donald Trump.
The project, covering over 3,000 hectares, is a collaboration between Trump’s business partner, Indonesian billionaire Hary Tanoesoedibjo, and the Trump Organization.
Tanoesoedibjo attended Trump’s inauguration in Washington last month. His association with Trump began in 2014 when his group company, MNC, was looking for an operator for sprawling “six star” resorts, one to be built on the tourist island of Bali and the other near Jakarta.
In exchange for a cut of the revenue, the Trump Organization would manage hotels, golf courses and country clubs that would cost about $700 million for MNC to build. The projects form the core of larger developments that the company plans.
In a January 2017 interview with The Associated Press, Tanoesoedibjo, better known as Tanoe, said that developing the whole 3,000 hectares of Lido City would take more than a decade and cost up to $3 billion, of which the Trump properties would cost more than $300 million.
The company has been promoting the project for years. In 2023, then Indonesian President Joko Widodo gave it special economic zone status providing MNC Land with tax breaks and leniency on permits.
A sprawling “Trump Community” has been built since 2014 in this pocket of Indonesia’s most densely populated island, with a new toll road leading to it, located in Gunung Gede Pangrango, about 60 kilometers (37 miles) south of the capital, Jakarta, and is home to a new Trump golf course, which started offering membership last year.
Though a private development, Lido City suits the Indonesian government’s ambitions to create more tourist destinations that it hopes will be as popular as Bali.
It’s part of broader plans, including a huge theme park, that have alarmed conservationists who fear development will overwhelm habitats for some of the archipelago’s most threatened species.
The Environment Ministry said in a…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at The Independent Travel…