The government is currently in the final phase of negotiations with four multinational companies to develop cloud-based services facilities and data centres in the country, this was confirmed by Minister of Communications and Multimedia Tan Sri Annuar Musa.
He added, the Ministry of Finance has informed that one negotiation had been completed and three were nearing completion to enable the international companies to make larger investments in the country. “One of these companies informed me that their investment is worth more than RM1 billion for cloud computing and cloud services,”.
This comes as Malaysia aims to transition into a fully digital-oriented nation by 2030 as stipulated under the 12Malaysia Plan and Digital Blueprint which will require large scale data centres to manage massive data that need processing.
Localised data centers will play a critical role if governments are to move their sensitive documents to the cloud, with a swath of information transversing in cyberspace, these centres have to be enormous and advanced.
Recently, Bridge Data Centre a wholly owned integrated data centre of ChinData added another Hyperscale centre to the three it already manages in the country.
The following years will see more technology-related investment towards such initiatives including the rolling out of 5G and expanding broadband services to all corners of the country.
Tan Sri Musa also confirmed that there are at least three local and international companies planning to develop broadband services in Sarawak.
“They have met with the Ministry of Communications and Multimedia to disclose their plans to make another intercontinental cable, a submarine cable that will pass through northern Sarawak via the coast in the South China Sea,” he quipped.
Under the national broadband agenda, no citizen is to be left behind when it comes to access to high-speed broadband, thus the focus in East Malaysia which is regarded as a laggard in terms of internet coverage.
