Indonesia’s President Joko Widodo is a man in a hurry. Accompanied by a vast retinue of cabinet ministers, his chef, and 100 chief executives he has travelled to the heart of Borneo’s rainforest to oversee his audacious plan to build a new capital there.

In 38-degree heat, Jokowi, as he is widely known, throws himself into a frenetic schedule of “groundbreaking” ceremonies in clearings in the jungle — for an airport, a school, two hospitals, a hotel and shopping mall, as well as the new headquarters of Indonesia’s central bank.

It is four years since he ratified his $32bn dream to move the government from the overcrowded and sinking megalopolis that is the current capital Jakarta to this equatorial outpost in Kalimantan. Even by the colossal standards of Asia’s infrastructure projects this has a staggering ambition and cost. Now, Widodo is racing against time to see it come into being before he steps down next year.