Lately, there has been a lot of talk about the government’s plans to expand the data centre industry in Malaysia, with concerns about the amount of electricity consumption and also the large water supply.
In Johor, there have been protests over the development of a data centre in Gelang Patah because it is said to be causing air pollution through excessive dust. Today, Prime Minister Dato’ Sri Anwar Ibrahim answered a question in Parliament about the steps the government is taking to ensure that Malaysians are not burdened by the development of the sector.
He replied that it is true that the use of these resources will become a big problem if not controlled. Because of this, the government has moved to block the development of new data centres that do not use the latest AI technology, or add any modern technological capabilities to Malaysia.
This means that for the next two years, proposals to open new data centres in Malaysia will only be entertained if they are related to the use of AI technology, or if they use brand-new technologies that can increase Malaysia’s competitiveness in the technology arena.
Meanwhile, speaking of electricity consumption, data centers in Malaysia will be powered using the ASEAN Power Grid which powers a large number of data centers in Southeast Asia, from Vietnam to Singapore.
