00:00Hari ini, kami menjelaskan salah satu dari sektor yang lebih cepat di Malaysia,
00:04industri data-centre yang lebih cepat.
00:06Alikasi dengan pemerintah data-centre yang lebih cepat dengan Asia-Pacific data-centre
00:09market movement, Malaysia's data-centre sector is entering a new phase of expansion
00:13fueled by artificial intelligence, AI adoption and large-scale hyperscaler investment.
00:18Asa salah satu dari Asia's most cost-competitive markets,
00:21the country offers developers a strong balance of affordability,
00:26policy stability and regional connectivity, reinforcing its role as a strategic alternative
00:32to higher-cost hubs across the region.
00:34The data-centre construction cost index 2025 from Global Professional Services,
00:40company Turner & Townsend benchmarks construction costs across 52 markets worldwide.
00:46Ranked 17, costs have remained relatively stable at US$11.37 per watt
00:53and Malaysia continues to attract investment through its combination of competitive build rates,
00:58growing hyperscale capacity and increasing regional significance
01:02as a scalable alternative to Singapore.
01:05Joining us in the studio is Carlos Garcia Rodriguez,
01:08Project Director at Turner & Townsend to unpack Malaysia's cost structure,
01:14construction challenges, coding technologies and what it will take
01:17to strengthen our long-term competitiveness.
01:20I want to say thank you very much.
01:21Thank you for having me.
01:22Carlos, how are you?
01:23I'm very good, thank you.
01:24It's a pleasure to be here.
01:25It's an honour to have you also.
01:27So we know that talking about data centre is growing globally,
01:31but how could you summarise Malaysia's cost structure and key advantage
01:35compared to established a data centre in like Japan and Singapore?
01:40Yes, so Malaysia obviously there's a lot of land availability.
01:45There's no land scarcity, such as in Singapore obviously.
01:49I would also say that politically it's very stable as a country
01:53and that's perceived by the investors and developers as well as a very stable economy.
01:59And I would also say that the skill of the market and the labour market itself in Malaysia
02:04is at par to the biggest economies in the world I would say.
02:08So obviously all of these builds into an ecosystem that flourishes international investment
02:14coming from the US, from different regions in the world.
02:18And obviously Malaysia is in a great position to continue this race into the AI world.
02:24How do you factors like land costs, labour availability and local regulations in Malaysia
02:31affect the overall project delivery and timeline and budget?
02:35It's not easy because we know that a lot of experts have to be focused.
02:39Maybe you can share with us.
02:40Yeah, I can share with you.
02:41Let me start with the regulatory approach.
02:43So over the past few years, Malaysia has streamlined the permitting process,
02:49especially I would say on the fire department, fire regulation.
02:54And I would say the same, especially in the state of Johor in the south,
02:58where there's new bodies making sure that the data centres are aligned
03:03to the Malaysia plan of digital economy.
03:06If we move on into the labour cost, labour availability or even the contractor's books,
03:13I would say it's very important to say that we are still far away from very, very condensed markets
03:19like Japan and Singapore.
03:21In Japan, the order books for the contractors fall until 2028.
03:27So to start the construction in Japan, it takes time.
03:29Here in Malaysia, we are still in a heating wave.
03:33Obviously, it's something to watch out, but as more international contractors
03:38and local contractors venture into data centres,
03:42I do think that we still have room for growth in the country.
03:45And as power densities increase and cooling rise, like AI, liquid cooling,
03:51maybe what is the best way or the best method?
03:53Or how do you see Malaysian balancing these technical needs
03:57at the same time at the advantage of the cost?
04:00So I would like to focus first on the society itself, on the citizens.
04:06So obviously, data centres consume a lot of power.
04:09They use a lot of water.
04:11So I do think that Malaysia has taken the right steps
04:14by securing additional power, securing green lane initiatives
04:18for faster access for data centres into power.
04:23So I don't think that on that area, as a national undertaking,
04:28I do think that Malaysia is taking the right steps.
04:31Now, when it comes to other factors such as costs,
04:35well, I'd like to point out the new SSD introduced a few months ago
04:41by the Malaysian government.
04:43That's obviously impacting the data centre industry
04:46as well as all the industries because now operators and investors
04:50need to account for additional 6% of construction costs
04:55as they venture into Malaysia with investments.
04:59So that's something that they are actually taking into consideration.
05:02And on the other hand, during the operations,
05:06the public water company in Selangor, Tenaga National Berhad
05:10have also increased the fares and the tariffs for data centre operators.
05:15So that's something that obviously needs to be balanced
05:18into a TCO, total cost of ownership,
05:21when data centre operators decide to make investments in Malaysia.
05:25So this is one of the key factors that you mentioned.
05:29We also know that the trend in Malaysia is heating right now.
05:33Also, we need to take a look at the opportunities and the risks.
05:38What are some of the main challenges in promoting cooling technologies
05:44within Malaysia's data centre market?
05:47So look, with the advancement of liquid cooling,
05:51which is not something new, but it's been made a sort of a commodity lately,
05:56the knowledge on the cooling technologies plays a big part.
06:02And what we've seen over the past year, I would say,
06:06is that projects have been redesigned at design stage
06:10or even in construction stage to account for liquid cooling technologies.
06:15So that's obviously carried forward a delay in the construction.
06:19and it's carried forward an increase in the costs as well.
06:23But obviously, I would say there's a fear of missing out in some sort of way.
06:30And then obviously, data centre operators and investors,
06:33they need to account for these investments.
06:35When we build these buildings, they will be there for 20 or 25 years.
06:41So they need to be accounted for all the technologies that we'll have in the future.
06:45And definitely, this is a long-term strategy.
06:49And talking about long-term strategy implementations and planning,
06:54what strategies have been used by operators, developers,
06:58to mitigate risk from the supply chains or cost shocks,
07:01particularly in the construction materials and critical equipment?
07:05So I would say the critical equipment is somehow in a bottleneck, I would say.
07:13So that's why data centre operators are reaching out to, you know,
07:18distributors of UPSs, generators, chillers, cooling towers to book orders in advance.
07:24So there's a trend to do bulk ordering on a global level, not only on Malaysia level.
07:31I would say also modularisation has played a big part here.
07:36So by phasing the development according to the data centre operator's tenants,
07:44basically we can make sure that we adjust the capital expenditure at the initial of the stage,
07:50sorry, at the initial of the projects to make sure that it aligns with the delivery strategy
07:55and the tenant strategy for use.
07:58So, yeah, all in all, the industry is becoming more creative.
08:04We need to think outside the box.
08:06Yeah, innovative.
08:07Yeah, exactly.
08:08So that's the data centre world in the end.
08:11And also we need to take a look at the costs.
08:14Costs usually are the main focus.
08:17Without costs, we can't move this.
08:19And given the rising costs of construction materials, labour and supply chain delays,
08:25how do you foresee data centre construction in Malaysia's costs would evolve and the wider APEC region?
08:33So let me focus on the APEC region first and then I'll go back to Malaysia.
08:39So we've seen trends, especially in Indonesia and Japan and Singapore,
08:44where costs have risen up over the past few years,
08:47but then later on have become very stable.
08:51I do see Malaysia having this sharp cost increase over the past three years.
08:57However, my forecast is that over the next four to five years,
09:02Malaysia cost of construction will stabilise,
09:06especially considering that there's a big pool of contractors
09:10currently delivering data centres in the country.
09:13I don't foresee many issues happening like the issues that I was mentioning before in Japan
09:19on the pipeline of contractors.
09:22So that's something that I don't think it plays a big role.
09:26Besides that, I don't think that the policy makers are looking into the right things as well.
09:31So we can look into incentives to continue delivering data centre projects in Malaysia.
09:40And what I would encourage everyone to look at is how, as a society,
09:45we benefit from the data centres, because obviously construction is one stage.
09:49But after that, data centres will be operated.
09:52Can we build an AI economy in Malaysia at the back of this?
09:56And what are some of the policy or incentives that can accelerate data centre growth in Malaysia?
10:02So obviously tax exemptions for overseas investments is something that the government is looking at.
10:10Obviously there are other things such as green lane initiatives for permitting.
10:15There are other areas that we could focus on,
10:19such as the special, the Johor Economic Zone, Special Economic Zone.
10:24So obviously this needs to come along with a policy debate.
10:29It's not something that I'm in a position to advise.
10:33But obviously I do think that dialogue is important among the government,
10:38the data centre operators, contractors and society as a whole
10:41to make sure that we can continue building in data centres in Malaysia.
10:45Probably my last questions.
10:47We know that we are growing trend in Malaysia.
10:51So what are some of the best policy, incentive, strategy or ways that we can learn from other countries,
10:58probably with more advanced economies that have more funding,
11:02that have more money to accelerate the data centre growth?
11:05What are some of the things that we can learn and adapt from them?
11:07So I must say that Malaysia has learned a lot
11:11and has learned from shortcomings that happened in other countries, Europe, Singapore.
11:18So at some point in time, not too long ago, probably around five years ago,
11:23several data centre construction moratoriums were implemented in several countries.
11:29one of them is Singapore, for instance, another one is the Netherlands,
11:32especially the area around Amsterdam, whereby the government realised
11:37that there was not enough power for data centres and the citizens.
11:41Now, we got quite close to this situation in Malaysia, especially in Johor.
11:47But I do think that the government reacted swiftly
11:50by implementing the additional governances in the state of Johor,
11:55which have warranted power for not only for data centres, but for society.
12:01So I do think that Malaysia is learning from those mistakes.
12:04And I'm happy that this is not happening in Malaysia, actually.
12:07Thank you.
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