2023 Facts & Figures: ASIA & OCEANIA

Indonesia plans to build a new capital city on the island of Borneo. It will be called Nusantara, which means “archipelago” in Javanese. Not only is the existing capital, Jakarta, overcrowded and polluted, but it was also built on swampy ground and is sinking. The move is projected to cost more than $32 billion.

^{Source: BBC}

NUMBER of people who left Hong Kong in 2021, the highest number in at least six decades. The territory has suffered from repeated Covid lockdowns and increasing crackdowns on freedom by Chinese authorities.

^{Source: Bloomberg}

YEAR that Australia became the first place in the world to use a secret ballot—today, sometimes known as the Australian ballot—for elections.

^{Source: BBC}

NUMBER of Rohingya refugees who live in the world’s largest and most densely populated refugee camp, Kutupalong, in southern Bangladesh. About half of the refugees, who fled genocide in neighboring Myanmar starting in 2017, are children.

^{Source: World Vision}

PERCENTAGE of growth in India’s GDP in 2021, after a 6.6 percent pandemic-related decline in 2020. Steady growth of India’s economy has lifted millions out of poverty.

^{Source: Asian Development Bank}