Today, Jakarta celebrates its 495th anniversary. The Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan conveyed his message and hope for Jakarta city and its people.

Let's make this city like a canvas where we can paint, be creative, make breakthroughs and novelties in any field

He encouraged Jakartans to continue working and find breakthroughs and novelties in any field. People were also asked to position themselves not only as Indonesian people but also as people of the world.

According to him, the Jakarta Government is ready to support and facilitate the creation of Jakartans who can make Indonesia proud by improving soft and hard infrastructure.

"Let's make this city like a canvas where we can paint, be creative, make breakthroughs and novelties in any field, with the target is to reach a global level in any field," he said when interviewed simultaneously on five radio stations, on Wednesday (6/22).

He admitted that he was happy to see a new generation that was very creative. He ensured the government would continue to support and facilitate them as a manifestation of Jakarta as a city that provides a sense of justice, opportunity, and ease of work.

On that occasion, he also encouraged people to maintain a feeling of togetherness and unity, thus they could feel the progress mixed with happiness.

"Happy birthday to Jakarta. Hopefully, this city will continue to be a place where every potential can grow and develop, and every work can reach widely and each of us can feel an advanced city with happy citizens," he asserted.

During the interview, he stated that this year's Jakarta anniversary carried the theme of Collaboration, Acceleration, and Elevation.

Collaboration is a joint work movement, not in a ceremonial sense. It means that everyone has a sense of responsibility, not just the government's business, but everyone involved in it.

"We want the spirit of collaboration to emerge within the society. Do not let the event be celebrated, attended, and applauded by the government itself. But everyone must be involved in it,"

Acceleration, he added, is an effort to advance into a developed city by accelerating its development and improving soft and hard infrastructures, such as transportation integration, innovation, and others.

"In recent years, sidewalks with a total length of more than 340 kilometers have been built in Jakarta, including in Sudirman-Thamrin. There is also an acceleration of transportation and village renovation. We want acceleration to continue," he mentioned.

Meanwhile, elevation is an effort to make Jakarta equal to other developed cities in the world. One of them is serving people digitally.

"Now, everything can be processed digitally. Even, the JAKI super-app is also recognized as the best application in Southeast Asia," he said.

By becoming on par with other cities in the world, he assessed, Jakarta would be on the global radar with the hope of making Jakarta one of the world's important cities, where citizens from other countries could learn from Jakarta about the changes that had been made.

"Jakarta is ranked first in the Sustainable Transport Award. We won not because transportation in Jakarta is the best in the world, but among all cities in the world, Jakarta is the city with the most significant changes in public transportation," he stated.