Batam data center industry posts 22 percent annual growth: Minister
According to him, the growth demonstrates Batam’s growing position as one of Indonesia’s digital economic hubs, supported by international investment.
“The expansion of the data center industry in Batam is growing by 22 percent annually, higher than the national average of around 19 percent. This is the right sector to drive Indonesia’s economic growth towards the eight percent target,” he remarked in Batam on Monday.
He conveyed the statement after attending the inauguration of the Nongsa Changi Cable (NCC), an international submarine cable connecting Batam and Singapore to strengthen digital connectivity between the two countries.
The minister said Batam is emerging as Indonesia’s digital gateway, driven by the continued growth of the Nongsa Digital Park (NDP), which has attracted significant data center investment.
“The BW Digital facility at NDP, for example, has a capacity of up to 120 megawatts (MW). There’s also a Singaporean company, DayOne, which is developing a 450 MW hyperscale data center,” he explained.
Furthermore, the American technology company, Oracle, has chosen Batam as the location for developing its Cloud Region in the Nongsa Digital Park area.
“Batam is rapidly emerging as a new gateway to Indonesia. The incoming investment shows this region’s growing importance in the regional digital ecosystem,” he said.
Hartarto views the development aligns with digital transformation, one of the priorities of President Prabowo Subianto’s administration through the development of digital and physical infrastructure.
He noted that advances in artificial intelligence (AI) are ushering in a new era, making high-speed digital connectivity and robust data center capacity increasingly essential.
“In the AI era, people, machines, and machine-to-machine systems require high-speed digital connectivity. Therefore, digital transformation must be supported by adequate infrastructure,” he pointed out.
The minister added that Indonesia has enormous potential for digital economic development, with 235.26 million internet users and around 99.5 million broadband subscribers.
“Indonesia is also the fourth-largest potential market for artificial intelligence in Asia after China, India, and Japan,” he added.
To support the growth of the digital industry, Hartarto said the government is also continuing to strengthen energy supply by developing the energy mix.
“Digital infrastructure depends on a reliable energy supply. Indonesia is expanding its power generation capacity and diversifying its energy mix to meet these needs, including through geothermal energy in Sumatra and solar power in Batam,” he ensured.
Furthermore, he also outlined a plan to increase power generation capacity by up to 100 gigawatts (GW) over the next few years as part of the Indonesia-Singapore cooperation agenda.
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Translator: Amandine Nadja, Resinta Sulistiyandari