AIMS hopes Budget 2018 will reclassify data centre industry

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The growing demand for data storage globally has opened up borders as global companies look towards Asia to store their data for their Asian customers. — Reuters photo

KUALA LUMPUR: AIMS Group hopes the government, under Budget 2018, will reclassify the data centre industry as a manufacturer to bring down the tariff of power for the industry which will lower the cost of operations.

Group chief executive officer Chiew Kok Hin said these savings would be passed on to its customers, making Malaysia more attractive and economically viable option for global investment.

“In order for Malaysia to become a world class data centre hub, it is necessary that this reclassification is awarded to the data centre industry.

“Otherwise we risk losing our attractiveness in the global market looking to store their data in Asia,” he said in a statement yesterday.

Chiew said data centres were the digital age manufacturers where everything is captured, saved and shared.

The growing demand for data storage globally has opened up borders as global companies look towards Asia to store their data for their Asian customers.

“However, high operations costs continue to hinder the growth and lessen the attractiveness of Malaysian data centres, and energy makes up approximately 40 per cent of operation costs for a data centre.

“The current tariff is much higher than in Singapore and this has made Malaysia less attractive as the choice for Asia and has led to us losing out on significant collaborations with international brands,” he said. — Bernama