JAKARTA: Two weeks after Indonesia banned air and sea travel to contain the spread of the coronavirus, the transport ministry has confirmed that flights and public transport will conditionally resume.
The ban, which came into effect on April 23, was scheduled to run until the end of May, but on Friday the transport ministry confirmed what has been criticized by civil society groups as a “confusing” policy backflip.
Those who work in security, defense and health services, or have emergency health reasons, will be allowed to travel if they have tested negative for the novel coronavirus and have a letter from their employer, the ministry told Reuters.
Migrant workers going home will also be allowed to travel.
“Operations will be limited and only for passengers who have been declared healthy and whose special interests are supported with documentation,” said Adita Irawati, a spokesman for the transport ministry.
Garuda Indonesia resumed domestic flights on Thursday, while Lion Air, Wings Air and Batik Air, all members of the Lion Air group, are scheduled to resume domestic flights on Sunday.
The government of the world’s largest Muslim-majority country had come under fire from some officials and health experts for being slow in announcing a ban on people traveling for the Eid Al-Fitr holiday at the end of Ramadan, when traditionally millions head back to hometowns and villages.
There are fears mass movements would rapidly spread the virus across archipelago, including to remote areas ill-equipped to handle a health crisis. The end of Ramadan is on around May 23.
The ministry defended its policy revision saying that travel at the end of Ramadan remains banned, although there are concerns about how well the ban might be enforced.
On Friday, a coalition of civil society groups criticized inconsistent and confusing messaging on social restrictions, accusing the government of “prioritizing the economy over the rights to public health.”
Despite only mixed evidence the government has flattened the COVID-19 curve, or slowed the rate of new infections, it has appeared eager to resume economic activity and ease social restrictions.
This week, Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati said the coronavirus epidemic had set poverty-eradication efforts back a decade, with more than 2 million people losing their jobs in the past six weeks.
But in a country with more than 13,000 cases of the virus and the highest death toll in East Asia outside China, some believe the move to relax restrictions could be premature.
“It’s too early,” said Dono Widiatmoko, a public health expert at the University of Derby.
“If social restrictions are relaxed with flights and trains resumed, the public will see this as a signal of normality and public transport will get busier, denser.”
Indonesia eases coronavirus travel ban despite fears it is too early
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Indonesia eases coronavirus travel ban despite fears it is too early
- The ban, which came into effect on April 23, was scheduled to run until the end of May
India hosts AI summit as safety concerns grow
- Modi will on Monday afternoon inaugurate the five-day AI Impact Summit, which aims to declare a “shared roadmap for global AI governance and collaboration”
NEW DELHI: A global artificial intelligence summit kicks off in New Delhi on Monday with big issues on the agenda, from job disruption to child safety, but some attendees warn the broad focus could diminish the chance of concrete commitments from world leaders.
While frenzied demand for generative AI has turbocharged profits for many tech companies, anxiety is growing over the risks that it poses to society and the environment.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will on Monday afternoon inaugurate the five-day AI Impact Summit, which aims to declare a “shared roadmap for global AI governance and collaboration.”
“This occasion is further proof that our country is progressing rapidly in the field of science and technology,” and it “shows the capability of our country’s youth,” he said in an X post on Monday.
It is the fourth annual gathering addressing the problems and opportunities posed by AI, after previous international meetings in Paris, Seoul and Britain’s wartime code-breaking hub Bletchley.
Touted as the biggest edition yet, the Indian government is expecting 250,000 visitors from across the sector, including 20 national leaders and 45 ministerial-level delegations.
Also in attendance will be tech CEOs including Sam Altman of OpenAI and Google’s Sundar Pichai, although unforeseen circumstances have reportedly led Jensen Huang, head of US chip titan Nvidia, to cancel his planned appearance.
Modi will seek to “strengthen global partnerships and define India’s leadership in the AI decade ahead” in talks with the likes of France’s Emmanuel Macron and Brazil’s Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, organizers say.
But whether they will take meaningful steps to hold AI giants accountable is in doubt, Amba Kak, co-executive director of the AI Now Institute, told AFP.
Industry commitments made at previous events “have largely been narrow ‘self regulatory’ frameworks that position AI companies to continue to grade their own homework,” said Kak, a former AI adviser to the US Federal Trade Commission who is taking part in the summit.
AI safety
The Bletchley gathering, held in 2023 — a year after ChatGPT stunned the world — was called the AI Safety Summit.
The meetings’ names have changed as they have grown in size and scope, and at last year’s AI Action Summit in Paris, dozens of nations signed a statement calling for efforts to flank AI tech with regulation to make it “open” and “ethical.”
But the United States did not sign, with Vice President JD Vance warning that “excessive regulation... could kill a transformative sector just as it’s taking off.”
The Delhi summit has the loose themes of “people, progress, planet” — dubbed three “sutras.”
AI safety remains a priority, including the dangers of misinformation such as deepfakes.
Last month saw a global backlash over Elon Musk’s Grok AI tool because it allowed users to produce sexualized pictures of real people, including children, using simple text prompts.
“Child safety and digital harms are also moving up the agenda, particularly as generative AI lowers the barrier to harmful content,” AI Asia Pacific Institute director Kelly Forbes told AFP.
“There is real scope for change” although it might not happen fast enough, said Forbes, whose organization is researching how Australia and other countries are requiring platforms to confront the issue.
AI for ‘the many’
Organizers highlight this year’s AI summit as the first to be hosted by a developing country.
“The summit will shape a shared vision for AI that truly serves the many, not just the few,” India’s IT ministry has said.
Last year India leapt to third place — overtaking South Korea and Japan — in an annual global ranking of AI competitiveness calculated by Stanford University researchers.
But despite plans for large-scale infrastructure and grand ambitions for innovation, experts say the country still has a long way to go before it can rival the United States and China.
Seth Hays, author of the Asia AI Policy Monitor newsletter, said talk at the summit would likely center around “ensuring that governments put up some guardrails, but don’t throttle AI development.”
“There may be some announcements for more state investment in AI, but it may not move the needle much — as India needs partnerships to integrate on the international scene for AI,” Hays told AFP.
