A general view of the Myanmar Parliament in Naypyidaw, November 16, 2015. /VCG Photo
Indonesia has announced it is planning to move its capital away from Jakarta as the jammed, noisy city is slowly sinking into a swamp.
The southeast Asian country is not the first to make such a decision. So what prompts a government to uproot ministries and offices and what are the costs?
Jakarta, Indonesia
A city of 10 million people, plagued by horrendous traffic jams and pollution, Jakarta is reportedly sinking by up to 25 centimeters every year, leaving some areas already below sea level.
"The burden Jakarta is holding right now is too heavy as the center of governance, business, finance, trade and services," Prime Minister Joko Widodo said as he announced the new capital would be moved some 1,300 kilometers northeast, to the island of Borneo.
The move, involving the construction of offices and residences for some 1.5 million government employees, will cost an estimated 466 trillion rupiah (32.79 billion U.S. dollars). The new capital is expected to be ready by 2024.
Dense traffic is seen along a main road in downtown Jakarta, Indonesia, August 7, 2018. /VCG Photo
Naypyidaw, Myanmar
Before Indonesia, there was Myanmar: in 2005, the country's military rulers moved all administrative business to a brand new city named Naypyidaw, abandoning Yangon, the seat of government since 1948.
The stated aim was to have a more centrally located capital and move away from crowded Yangon, the country's commercial center.
The project is rumored to have cost about four billion U.S. dollars. Ten years on, reports have described Naypyidaw as a ghost town, empty of people. Official figures however put the population at about one million, a quarter of Yangon's.
Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan moved its capital in 1997 from Almaty, the country's largest city, to Astana, which in turn was renamed Nur-Sultan earlier this year.
View of the Kazakh capital Astana, now renamed Nur-Sultan, November 2, 2015. /VCG Photo
The brainchild of former president Nursultan Nazarbayev, it was thought the new capital would help boost development in other parts of the country. Its predecessor Almaty was located almost on the border with Kyrgyzstan and in an earthquake-prone zone.
Like Naypyidaw, Nur-Sultan was a planned city, with big-name architects like Norman Foster, Manfredi Nicoletti, and Kisho Kurokawa contributing designs to the Las Vegas-like skyline in the middle of the Kazakh steppe. The estimated cost was between 10 and 30 billion U.S. dollars.
Abuja, Nigeria
Nigeria decided to move its capital from Lagos, the commercial center, to Abuja in 1976, but it took 15 years for this to become a reality in 1991.
Like other relocated capitals, Abuja was chosen for its more central location and as a kind of blank slate where the government could build its seat of government according to its specifications, while moving away from a congested and overcrowded city.
At least 3.5 million people now live in Abuja, compared to 12.5 million in Lagos, according to national statistics.
The Museu Nacional, designed by architect Oscar Niemeyer, in Brasilia, Federal District, Brazil, November 9, 2011. /VCG Photo
Brasilia, Brazil
Brazil transferred its capital from coastal Rio de Janeiro to Brasilia, a new city built further inland, in 1960. Designed by Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer "to bring progress to the interior of Brazil", it has since attained UNESCO World Heritage status for its modernist architecture.
Billions of U.S. dollars are believed to have been spent on construction and the city is now home to about 2.5 million people.
Islamabad, Pakistan
Bucking the trend of choosing central locations, Pakistan moved its capital from one end of the country to the other in 1963 when it built Islamabad in the northeast to replace the southern coastal financial center of Karachi.
Local authorities said the relocation was to separate government business from commercial activities and also to facilitate access to remote areas of the country.
A man sits in a flooded street after Hurricane Earl hit Belize City, Belize, August 4, 2016. /VCG Photo
Belmopan, Belize
Belmopan differs from other new capitals in that it was set up after the previous capital, Belize City, was left almost entirely destroyed by a 1961 hurricane.
The new city was built for about 12 million U.S. dollars in the country's interior, safeguarding it from the region's devastating cyclones, and officially became the capital in 1970. But it remains one of the smallest capitals in the world, with a population of just about 16,000.
In the works
South Sudan announced last year that it was planning to build a new capital – Ramciel – to replace the current one, Juba, although it was unclear what the timeline on the project was.
Egypt is also in the process of relocating its capital from Cairo to an as-yet-unnamed city some 50 kilometers to the east at an estimated cost of 58 billion U.S. dollars.
And also…
Malaysia in 1999 moved government administration to a brand new city called Putrajaya. Officially however, Kuala Lumpur is still the country's capital.