JAKARTA – Johor Bahru, Malaysia, has emerged as the most attractive data centre hub in Southeast Asia, prompting Indonesia to accelerate its efforts to keep pace with the latest technological advancements, such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), to cater to potential investors in the data centre sector.

“They need to build data centres with higher specifications, and they must provide land or facilities for AI,” said Farazia Basarah, Country Head and Head of Logistics & Industrial at JLL Indonesia, during JLL Indonesia's Media Briefing on Wednesday (5/2).

However, Basarah also noted that the data centre investment trend in Indonesia remains highly appealing. “For cloud, the storage average in Indonesia is decent. We also have a large population and a high level of internet usage,” she explained.

Additionally, the advancement of AI technology continues to sustain the expansion potential of the domestic data centre industry.

According to Basarah, existing data centre companies are not only expanding but are also starting to invest in land to prepare data centres capable of accommodating AI technology.

“In fact, there has already been some AI demand in Q1, or in January. We have already seen that AI has entered Indonesia, and it continues to show prospects in the country,” she said.

According to JLL Indonesia's presentation, the occupancy rate of data centres in Indonesia has remained stagnant at an average of 60-70%.

However, Basarah believes that if data centre players enter the AI sector, existing capacity can be absorbed effectively, and it could even drive the growth of data centre supply moving forward. (ZH)