With Malaysia’s data centre industry projected to reach RM3.6bil in revenue by 2025, it’s more important than ever to prepare local industry players for the expected growth, says Teo Nie Ching.

Speaking at the Cloudtech & Data Centre 2024 Conference on Wednesday (Aug 7), the Deputy Communications Minister said strategically placing data centres in the country would accelerate the industry’s growth.

“This is due to low latency being essential for a seamless experience, especially for applications like autonomous vehicles and complex remote operations that these data centres should support.

“Even the slightest delays can have significant consequences,” she said in her speech during the conference, held at the Pullman Kuala Lumpur City Centre on Thursday (Aug 8).

Teo highlighted recent industry news suggesting a positive future for Malaysia’s aspirations to become a regional data centre hub.

“RM76bil worth of data centre-related investments have been approved by the Investment, Trade and Industry Ministry via the Malaysian Investment Development Authority from 2021 to March 2024.

“From this, we see that more industry players are investing in the digital economy, and a lot of existing data centre operators here are expanding their operations,” she told reporters after the conference.

“This is an opportunity to create more high-value jobs for Malaysians and, at the same time, to ensure our place as a digital economy leader in Asean,” she added.

Meanwhile, Shawn Suresh, an IT infrastructure chief technology officer at Basis Bay, a home-grown leading data centre and IT infrastructure provider, said the event was needed to build confidence in the industry.

“With the industry growing extremely fast, there is now a lot of misinformation and a lack of overall industry expertise.

“Conferences like this are key to inform and prepare the public and industry players for the future of the industry,” said Shawn Suresh

Shawn also called for the legislation of foreign data centre providers to protect local industry players.

“Many of them are from competing economies and countries, so we need new laws to manage not only data centres but also the flow of data out of the country; otherwise, we may run into issues in the long run,” he added.

Teoh Wooi Keat, sales director at Vertiv Malaysia, a world-leading critical digital infrastructure provider, emphasises the need for responsible and optimal resource usage in data centres.

“With modern data centres expected to be more advanced through integration of AI, energy consumption will increase accordingly.

“We must learn how to maximise economic benefit with optimal carbon footprint through sustainable data centre design.

“Through conferences like this, industry players will also learn what to expect in the next decade through exchanging information, allowing us to move forward as both an industry and a country,” he said.

Organised by the Star Media Group Bhd (SMG), the Cloudtech & Data Centre 2024 Conference gathered over 100 leading IT professionals, industry leaders and policymakers from across the region who sparked discussions on the future of the data centre industry.

SMG group chief executive officer Chan Seng Fatt and SMG chief business officer Lydia Wang joined Teo on stage to present her a token of appreciation after she gave her speech during the event.