KUALA LUMPUR, March 6 ― The SME Association of Malaysia (SME Association) and National Tech Association of Malaysia (Pikom) are calling for local players to be included in the building and management of hyperscale data centres as well as for the provision of hybrid cloud services.

Under the MyDigital initiative, which will be implemented via the recently-launched Malaysia Digital Economy Blueprint, the government has given conditional approvals for Microsoft, Google, Amazon and Telekom Malaysia Bhd (TM) to fulfil this objective.

"This is in line with the government’s aim of migrating 80 per cent of public data into the hybrid cloud system by end-2022 under the ‘cloud first’ strategy.

"However, this initiative should also be broadened to include local data centre providers so as to further develop local talent, skills and intellectual properties for Malaysia,” SME Association vice president Chin Chee Seong said in a joint statement today.

Chin urged the government to broaden the selection beyond the four companies to also include other local leading data centre players.

Meanwhile, Pikom chairman Danny Lee said that adopting a level playing field ― and one that’s inclusive of local data centre providers ― would ensure that the industry would continue to thrive.

"Currently, TM is the only local company earmarked for this initiative. We should not forget other local players which have successfully built up this market for Malaysia, so much so that our country is also known as an ideal location for business continuity and disaster recovery,” said Lee.

He said that thanks to efforts from local data centre providers, Malaysia was also increasingly becoming a regional hub for various industries such as manufacturing, logistics and big data analytics.

"As more organisations embark on investing in cloud systems, the need for more local data centres is set to rise ― and we expect the market in years ahead to be exponential.

 "Hence, we urge the government to include local players ― which have built the data centre industry to be what it is today ― to continue to be part of this growth moving forward,” Lee added. ― Bernama