Towards a Global City: A Study of the Global Cities Index Dimensions in Jakarta

Following Indonesia’s announcement of its plan to relocate the national capital from Jakarta to Nusantara, the City of Jakarta is projected to pursue global city status by 2045. Its transformation into a global city, however, remains a complex and challenging process. For this reason, this study aims to analyze Jakarta's readiness to evolve into a global city by examining its performance across the five dimensions outlined in Kearney’s Global Cities Index. Through a qualitative method and literature review, this article argues that a contradiction exists between Jakarta’s national potential as a global city and its actual performance based on Kearney’s standards. On the national scale, Jakarta is the most potential city to be prepared to become a global city because it excels in all dimensions compared to other cities in Indonesia. However, if the analysis is carried out through a comparison of Jakarta with global cities in the world and the dimensions set by Kearney, Jakarta is still quite behind. Jakarta needs to focus on city development to meet the standards as a global city in the extent of business activity, human capital, information exchange, cultural experience, and political engagement.