The Chairman of the National Economic Council (DEN), Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan, stated that President Prabowo Subianto will issue a Presidential Decree (Keppres) to resolve the debt issue of the Jakarta–Bandung High-Speed Rail (Whoosh) project.

According to Luhut, the only remaining issue in the project is the restructuring of the loan with the China Development Bank (CDB), which had been delayed due to the transition of leadership from President Joko Widodo to President Prabowo Subianto.

The upcoming presidential decree will include the list of team members who will negotiate with CDB. Luhut revealed that he had asked Minister of Investment and Downstreaming and CEO of Danantara, Rosan Roeslani, to appoint several people to join the negotiation team.

"China said they are willing to extend the project to Surabaya as long as the debt restructuring is completed soon," Luhut stated at the event “One Year of Prabowo–Gibran Administration: Optimism on 8% Economic Growth” held at Hotel JS Luwansa, South Jakarta, Thursday (October 16).

"When I visited China three months ago, they agreed, but we are still waiting for the presidential decree. I already told Rosan, ‘Just form the team — include these people — and issue the Keppres.’ Then he said, ‘I’ll talk to the President,’” Luhut recounted.

The Whoosh high-speed rail project has long been under the coordination of the Coordinating Ministry for Maritime Affairs and Investment (Kemenko Marves), which Luhut led during the administration of President Joko Widodo.

However, Luhut firmly denied that there had ever been any request to use the state budget (APBN) to pay off the project’s debts.

"People keep debating about Whoosh, but the real issue is only debt restructuring. No one has ever asked the APBN to cover the debt," Luhut emphasized.

He further explained that he personally communicated with China since he was involved in the project from the beginning.

"I took over the project when it was already problematic. We fixed it, conducted an audit through the Financial and Development Supervisory Agency (BPKP), and eventually China agreed to proceed with the restructuring," he elaborated.

The idea of using the state budget to pay off Whoosh’s debt came from Danantara Investment Management Agency, which proposed two alternatives: capital injection to PT Kereta Api Indonesia (Persero) or handing over the high-speed rail infrastructure to the government.

Meanwhile, Finance Minister Purbaya Yudhi Sadewa urged Danantara to repay the Whoosh debt using dividends from state-owned enterprises (SOEs), noting that the profits from these SOEs, which were previously managed by the Ministry of Finance, have now been fully transferred under Danantara’s control.