The Thai cabinet has last week approved a draft Prime Minister’s Office Regulation to establish a Data Centre Business Policy Committee to oversee data centers in the kingdom, local reports say. The regulations are needed to balance investment promotion with concerns over energy security, water resources and environmental protection, according to cabinet spokesperson Rachada Dhnadirek.
“We will see to it that data centre businesses do not adversely affect the country’s energy security or water resources,” Rachada reportedly said.
According to Bangkok-based legal firm Dej-Udom & Associates, once in force, the committee will propose the policy, standards, and operating framework that state agencies apply when they approve, license, or provide services to data-centre operators, and will study and report the sector’s impact to the Cabinet.
More significantly, the committee’s stated objectives “read as a preview of future approval criteria: clean-energy use, energy security and fair pricing, fair and efficient allocation of water and electricity, town planning, fire safety, national data sovereignty, prevention and remediation of environmental and community impact, and carbon neutrality.”
Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul will appoint a deputy prime minister as the committee chair, who will be assisted by the ministers of digital economy and society, interior and energy. The PM will also appoint up to three experts, Rachada added.
Currently, data centers in Thailand are approved and regulated based on building control and land-use regulations, as data centers are not classified as factories under existing laws. A new law governing data centers is currently being drafted.
As the draft regulation will only take effect upon publication in the Royal Gazette, Dej-Udom & Associates said it does not have any immediate impact. “ .. it imposes no licence condition today. Its value now is as a clear signal of the criteria on which future approvals will turn.”
The legal firm is of the view that the committee’s stated criteria is a template for future Board of Investment, licensing, and utility approvals; hence, stakeholders should look into that when planning their data centers in Thailand. For example, they need to build clean-energy, water, siting, and data-sovereignty readiness into project planning now.
Thailand approved 746 billion baht of investment into the digital sector last year, most of which came from data centers. In 1Q 2026 alone, data centers accounted for most of the record investment applications of over 1 trillion baht. The Ministry of Commerce has issued 1,145 permits for AI data centre businesses, with more than half of them located in Bangkok and the remaining scattered across Nonthaburi, Pathum Thani, Phuket, Chon Buri, Nakhon Ratchasima, Rayong and Khon Kaen provinces.