The number of jobs created for Malaysians from data centre investments is not directly proportional to the amount of investment announced, said Human Resources Minister R Ramanan.

His remarks come amid concerns over the real spillover value of the country’s growing data centre sector, as well as environmental worries over the facilities’ high water consumption.

In a written parliamentary reply yesterday, Ramanan said data centres are “capital-intensive investments”, with much of their value spent on high-quality equipment, electrical infrastructure, and cooling systems. As a result, most jobs in the sector are high-value and require specialised technical skills.

The minister did not provide figures on how many jobs have so far been created from data centre investments.

However, the Sg Buloh MP said the Human Resources Ministry had taken proactive steps to prepare Malaysians for such roles, holding workshops with industry players in May and October last year through Talent Corporation Malaysia Berhad (TalentCorp).

The workshops aimed to map the skills needed across the data centre lifecycle and identify high-demand roles, their required qualifications, and training periods.

Twelve high-demand roles were identified, including electrical and mechanical engineers, IT project managers, solutions architects, network security engineers, and data centre technicians.

Eight require a degree, one requires a diploma, two require TVET qualifications, and one - chargeman - is open to SPM holders with an Energy Commission competency certificate.

“This proves that high-skilled jobs resulting from data centre investments not only provide opportunities for university graduates, but also open up high-value job spaces for school leavers from local TVET training institutions,” Ramanan said.

He was responding to Bandar Tun Razak MP Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, who asked for the latest figures on high-skilled jobs actually created for Malaysians from data centre investments, compared with the total investment value announced.

Benefits beyond job numbers

In June, Malaysian Investment Development Authority (Mida) chairperson Tengku Zafrul Abdul Aziz (below) argued that criticism of data centres creating relatively few jobs overlooked the industry’s wider economic spillovers.

He said the benefits were largely indirect, arising from the development of the right ecosystem, particularly for artificial intelligence (AI).

However, former Klang MP Charles Santiago said the debate should move beyond investment figures and headline announcements, noting that not all value from data centre operations benefits Malaysia.

In its Malaysia Data Centre Overview published this month, Fitch Solutions unit BMI said Malaysia has 125 data centre facilities, with 925.6 megawatts of live capacity, 2.0 gigawatts under construction, and a planned pipeline of 3.1 GW, largely concentrated in Johor.

BMI expects Malaysia to continue outperforming Southeast Asia’s data centre market.

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