As the threat of a reclassification by MSCI that could relegate Indonesia to an investment hinterland looms, the country’s financial regulators and stock exchange officials have vowed to address systemic concerns, including removing stocks with concentrated ownership. The global index provider announced on Friday it was launching a formal consultation to decide whether to downgrade Southeast Asia’s largest economy from “emerging market” to “stand-alone” status, similar to countries such as...

As haze from forest fires in Indonesia continues to shroud Southeast Asia, Malaysians have taken to social media to air their grievances, with a video of an elevated outdoor reading from an air purifier among viral content marking public frustration. The clip, posted by user syahierarafie, shows a device detecting an Air Pollutant Index (API) of up to 318 in Gelang Patah, a suburban town in western Johor Bahru which borders Singapore. The video has drawn over 990,000 views as of Tuesday. “Today,...

Malaysia’s main opposition coalition lost its registration on Tuesday, just 11 days before nominations for a state election, drawing accusations that Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s government is using state powers to cripple its rivals. The decision leaves Perikatan Nasional (PN) – already fractured by a bitter dispute between its Islamist anchor, the Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS), and estranged partner Bersatu – fighting to preserve its electoral identity ahead of Melaka’s November 14...

For most of the generative AI boom, someone in North Sumatra typing a question in Batak Toba has been talking to a machine that, at best, half understands them. GoTo Group says it wants to change that. But the hard part is only beginning. Indonesia’s largest digital ecosystem on Monday released a 27-billion-parameter language model […] The post GoTo’s 27B model speaks Batak, but the real test is who can afford to run it appeared first on e27.