KUALA LUMPUR, July 17 — The government will ensure the effective usage of water and electricity in line with the increase in data centre investments in Malaysia.
Investment, Trade, and Industry (Miti) Deputy Minister Liew Chin Tong said this would ensure the security of electricity and water supply is controlled and can be used effectively.
In June, the National Investment Council agreed with Miti and the Malaysian Investment Development Authority (Mida) that the improvement of the data centre investment acceptance policy should be based on several factors.
"Among them is to provide guidelines for power usage effectiveness and water usage effectiveness as well as an adequate supply of renewable energy to facilitate the investment of artificial intelligence (AI) data centres in our country.
"Miti and Mida were also directed to create a local vendor programme to develop the digital ecosystem as a whole," he said during a question-and-answer session in the Dewan Rakyat today.
Liew was responding to Jempol MP Datuk Shamshulkahar Mohd Deli's supplementary question about Miti and other agencies' efforts to oversee investments in data centres.
He stressed that there is a positive trend in AI investments in the country with commitments from global technology giants like Amazon Web Services (AWS), Nvidia, Microsoft and Google.
"Through AI-related investments, Miti and the government aim to develop a comprehensive digital economy ecosystem and promote the use of AI technology in a variety of fields, including in the smart manufacturing industry," Liew said.
— Bernama
