Malaysia on track to become regional hub for high-tech data centres, says Digital Minister
KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia is well on track to becoming a regional hub for high-tech, environmentally sustainable data centres, with the 13th Malaysia Plan (13MP) providing key momentum to ongoing digitalisation efforts, says Gobind Singh Deo.
The Digital Minister described 13MP as "timely and critical" in strengthening Malaysia's role in the regional digital economy, with plans to attract investments, develop infrastructure, and nurture talent to support the country's digital transformation.
"The goal is clear - for Malaysia to become a regional hub for high-tech, eco-friendly data centres," he said in his keynote address at the CloudTech and Data Centre 2.0 Conference on Wednesday (Aug 6).
Gobind said cloud infrastructure would be essential to Malaysia's 5G rollout, enabling transformative applications such as smart cities, precision healthcare and autonomous mobility.
"To unlock the true potential of 5G, we need ultra-low latency, secure and scalable data centres.
"We are not waiting for the future; we are actively building these capabilities now," he said.
Between 2021 and 2023, Gobind said Malaysia approved RM114.7bil in data centre and cloud service-related investments, creating over 2,300 high-value jobs.
He reaffirmed the government's commitment to achieving the RM3.6bil revenue target for the data centre industry by 2025.
On concerns about the environmental impact of data centres, Gobind acknowledged the energy-intensive nature and said the government would improve its efforts to improve environmental sustainability as a result.
"As our digital infrastructure expands, so must our commitment to environmental sustainability. It is not simply about lowering emissions, but about raising our standards.
"This is why we must push for more green and sustainable infrastructures," he said.
He then outlined three key pillars needed to build a future-ready digital ecosystem for the people, which were infrastructure, security and trust, and talent.
"Once you have infrastructure like 5G in place, the next step is preparing the country to leverage new technologies, and that starts with data.
"To use data effectively, we need computing power - and that's where building data centres is key," he said.
Gobind said that in order for people to be able to adopt a new digital-based ecosystem, they must first be convinced of its safety.
"It's about awareness, training, upskilling, and reskilling the current workforce - so they can use new technologies to empower themselves.
"If AI does impact their jobs, they are trained and ready to move into new areas if needed," he said.
The Cloudtech & DataCentre Conference 2.0 is organised by Star Media Group, with ABB Ltd as Gold Sponsor and TheGigabit as Business Development Sponsor.
The event is happening at Pullman Kuala Lumpur City Centre from Aug 6 to 7 with the goal of bringing together the biggest national leaders in the data centre industry to discuss the next digital step forward for Malaysia.
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