Nongsa Digital Park, a specialized industrial region for tech enterprises on the island of Batam, has received $1.5 billion worth of investment, according to Airlangga Hartarto, Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs of Indonesia.
With the opening of cloud regions by major cloud service providers including Google Cloud, Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, and Alibaba Cloud, Indonesia is expected to overtake China as the second-largest public cloud market in the region.
Moreover, due to its excellent connection, high internet penetration, and the existence of industrial districts like Cikarang and Karawang that provide better infrastructure, abundant land, and electrical supply, Indonesia is a desirable location for data centers in Southeast Asia.
Batam is being turned as a significant hub for Southeast Asia’s rapidly expanding cloud and data center industry because of its closeness to the continent’s economic powerhouses Singapore and Malaysia.
Additionally, Citramas Group’s Nongsa Park has been given special economic zone (SEZ) status, which comes with considerable tax breaks and duty-free import privileges.
According to Airlangga Hartarto, after the groundbreaking ceremony for a data center facility created by Chinese data center operator GDS Holding in Nongsa Digital Park, more than eight investors have spent $1.5 billion there.
The 28 MW data center campus is built at a cost of $200 million and occupies 10 hectares of land in the 167-hectare park and the government hopes to generate 150MW to 400MW of total data center capacity from businesses who develop their facilities in the park.
Batam is relatively sheltered from natural disasters and provides access to a huge market of 270 million people. Thus, Batam will gain prominence as a prime location for data center development and as business epicenters grow in cities.
