By Rozanna Latiff and Danial Azhar
KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) -Google said on Tuesday its investments in Malaysia would create 26,500 jobs and contribute more than $3 billion to its economy by 2030, as it announced its new data centre and Cloud region there had broken ground.
The start of construction of the new $2 billion data centrein Malaysia follows Monday’s announcement of its multi-year partnership with local tech firm Dagang NeXchange Berhad to provide sovereign cloud services.
It also follows Monday’s announcement that it would invest $1 billion in Thailand to build a data centre and cloud region there, to meet growing cloud demand and support Artificial Intelligence (AI) adoption in Southeast Asia.
“Our investments are designed to provide high performing and reliability, meeting demand for cloud and AI services across the country,” Google President and Chief Investment Officer Ruth Porat told an event in Malaysia.
Digital investments have helped propel Malaysia’s economy this year, with growth beating market expectations in the last two quarters and the ringgit currency becoming one of Asia’s top performers.
Porat said its ventures in Malaysia included support for new sustainability initiatives, such as improvements in water quality, plus skilling, with 355,000 Malaysians already trained since 2019 in digital skills.
Google’s moves are a part of a wider expansion by global tech companies into Southeast Asia, as they vie for a greater presence in a region with a young tech-savvy population of 670 million.
Earlier this year, Microsoft announced cloud services investments worth $1.7 billion in Indonesia, while Amazon plans to invest $9 billion in Singapore, $5 billion in Thailand and $6.2 billion in Malaysia.
Malaysia investment, trade and industry minister Tengku Zafrul Aziz said data centres would support the country’s ambitions to be a regional leader in the tech sector, including AI.
“Regionally the demand for data processing and storage solutions is increasing exponentially and Malaysia is well positioned to meet this demand,” he told the event.
(Reporting by Rozanna Latiff and Danial Azhar; Editing by Martin Petty)
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