Foreign investment to boost digital economy hub ambitions

Chai noted that this development resulted from further discussions between the Prime Minister and key private sector players. 

Currently, 37 data centre and cloud service projects have received approval from the Board of Investment, with a combined investment value of 98.539 billion baht.

The projects are situated in Bangkok, Samut Prakan, Chonburi and Rayong.

Leading global firms investing in the data centre project include Amazon Web Services from the United States, which plans to construct three data centres with an investment surpassing 25 billion baht; Evolution Data Centre from Singapore, which is investing 4 billion baht; and Telehouse from Japan, with an investment of 2.7 billion baht.

For the cloud service projects, Alibaba Cloud is investing more than 4 billion baht, while Huawei Technologies is committing over 3 billion baht.

Siam Commercial Bank's Economic Intelligence Centre forecasts that in 2024, Thailand's data centre market value will grow by approximately 24%, with public cloud services expanding by 29%.

“The Data Centre and Cloud Service project is important infrastructure for the development of the digital economy. The projects will help further develop Thailand’s competitiveness as an robust investment base in the region and increase global attention, which will support Thailand in its ambition to become a Digital Economy Hub, one of the eight visions of the Prime Minister's ‘Ignite Thailand’ policy,” Chai said.

To bolster Thailand's potential in data centres and cloud services, the Board of Investment is committed to supporting the country's five key strengths:

• Thailand's central location in the ASEAN region, serving as a connecting hub
• High security and safety, low natural disaster risk, neutrality in international affairs, and digital regulations meeting international standards, such as the Personal Data Protection Act (PDPA) and the Cyber Security Act
• High-quality infrastructure, including stable power systems and the potential to supply clean energy, crucial for data centre investments
• Rapidly expanding domestic market, with Thai people skilled in internet usage for various activities, including digital financial transactions, driving high demand for digital upgrades
• Attractive incentive benefits.