Berlin and the Indonesian capital Jakarta, a city of millions, have been partner cities since 1994.
The two cities have engaged in active cooperation ever since, especially when it comes to business, culture, and sports. Other current priorities of our partnership include “smart city” issues, administrative modernization, and promoting innovation.
The city governments of Berlin and Jakarta are in close contact. In a special initiative to further strengthen our relationship, an expert from Berlin was integrated into Jakarta’s administration from February 2019 to January 2024 to support smart city innovations and the digital transformation of city government. The German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development provided funding for this project in coordination with Jakarta and Berlin.
The Berlin-Jakarta city partnership is sustained by a wide variety of stakeholders, such as associations, sports schools, journalists, and artists, as well as strong community ties. The diverse range of projects and events gives a special boost to exchange in the areas of culture and sports.
In 2019, Berlin and Jakarta celebrated the 25th anniversary of their city partnership with many individual projects on various themes that took place throughout the year, with Berlin helping to organize or providing financial support to these projects.
In May 2022 Jakarta’s governor Anies Basweden visited Berlin in order, among other things, to intensify cooperation in the context of Smart Change projects and also, with then Governing Mayor Franziska Giffey, develop ideas to boost the city partnership in future. These ideas were taken further with Governor Baswedan during Permanent Secretary Ana-Maria Trăsnea’s visit to Jakarta for the U20 Summit in August 2022. Their talks made clear that topics like digitalization, startups, action on climate change and environmental protection, e-mobility and promoting democracy offer great potential for the partnership between the two cities.
Since December 2019, the project “Smart Change – Strengthening Urban Governance, Prosperity and Innovation in Jakarta” has been reinforcing our collaboration in the area of digital technologies, smart city innovations, and startups. The project ended in 2023 and was funded by the EU’s Partnerships for Sustainable Cities program. The goal was to promote good governance and sustainable urban development in line with the UN’s 2030 Agenda and its sustainable development goals (SDGs). The project led to a joint work program that included a number of reciprocal delegation visits, online conferences, and workshops, among other things. In addition, September 2023 saw the opening of the “Jakarta Future City Hub” – a product of the project – as a physical space for smart city innovations in Jakarta. The hub aims to result in even greater cooperation on future-oriented topics. Now Mayor and Senator for Economic Affairs, Energy and Public Enterprises, Franziska Giffey, travelled to Jakarta for the opening.
