Jakarta (ANTARA) - The government is concentrating on the development of the national data center in Batam city, Riau Islands, due to the city's strategic geographic position, deputy for investment information technology at the Ministry of Investment and Downstreaming, Ricky Kusmayadi, has said.
Speaking at a data center inauguration in Jakarta on Thursday, he informed that the selection of Batam as the focus of data center development is part of an effort to ensure the equal distribution of investment.
Kusmayadi explained that the growth of data center infrastructure in Southeast Asia is projected to reach up to 200 percent, higher than the global average.
This, he said, will be driven by the growth of the digital economy with the adoption of technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), cloud technology, social media, and e-commerce.
Indonesia is considered to be an important driver of data center growth, with its data center capacity projected to reach 936 megawatts (MW) by 2028, up more than 210 percent from the current 430 MW.
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"High demand, connectivity, good AI readiness, energy cost, and affordable land support the growth of data centers in Indonesia," he added.
On the same occasion, director general of digital governance technology at the Ministry of Communication and Digital Affairs, Mira Tayyiba, said that Indonesia has strategic potential to become an investment destination for digital infrastructure, including data centers.
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The country's large domestic digital economy market and high Internet penetration rate are expected to bring benefits in terms of data center investment.
Apart from that, Indonesia has the potential resources to generate 207 gigawatts (GW) of electricity from solar power and 29 GW from geothermal energy to support sustainable data center development.
