PETALING JAYA: Cloud technology and data centres are important factors in fulfilling the country’s Digital Malaysia aspiration, said communications and digital minister Fahmi Fadzil.
“By 2025, the forecast for Malaysia’s digital economy sees it contributing 25.5% to the gross domestic product and creating half a million jobs,” Fahmi said.
During his keynote address at today’s Invest Malaysia Series 2 programme – jointly organised by Bursa Malaysia and Macquarie Malaysia – Fahmi stressed the importance of maintaining high standards of data protection and cybersecurity in the country.
He emphasised that it is the government’s responsibility to ensure the robustness of these aspects.
Fahmi further mentioned that the ministry is actively promoting a “cloud-first” policy, which has resulted in increased cloud adoption across different sectors of the public administration.
Regarding the private sector, Fahmi affirmed the government’s commitment to offering favourable tax incentives and ensuring the availability of secure infrastructure, green energy facilities, and suitable locations for data centres.
These measures aim to support and encourage private enterprises to establish and operate data centres, enabling them to leverage the benefits of advanced technology while ensuring sustainability and security.
Fahmi pointed out that Malaysia holds a strong position for further market growth, as it is recognised as one of the most advanced data centre markets in Southeast Asia.
According to market analyst organisation Arizton, Malaysia’s data market centre was estimated to be worth US$1.06 billion (RM4.75 billion) in 2021. It is expected to grow to US$1.57 billion (RM7.03 billion) by 2027.
Bursa Malaysia chairman Wahid Omar similarly highlighted Malaysia’s potential to become a leading data centre hub in the region.
“Based on Knight Frank’s data centre research report, Malaysia stands out in Southeast Asia as the most attractive destination for data centre investment, with 113MW of take-up in 2022.
“This represents a four-fold increase compared to the next highest market, Thailand,” Wahid said.
“We view these progressive steps and outcomes as evidence of a sensible path toward stimulating investments and creating the conditions for continued progress in Malaysia,” he added.