KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia will join Google's 34 cloud regions currently operational around the world, an investment which Google Cloud said will be the most significant to date in the country.

Google Cloud managing director (Southeast Asia) Ruma Balasubramanian is unable to disclose the amount, but said the investment involves a data centre, hard/software as well as expertise.

"Infrastructure will be built out here in Malaysia. We are still in the process of searching for the location. We will share that with you as soon as we can.

"We have announced three additional cloud regions across the Asia Pacific this week. One of them is here in Malaysia and the other two will be in Thailand and New Zealand," she told reporters at Malaysia's Google cloud region announcement event here today.

On the group's decision to invest in Malaysia, she said the country has emerged from the pandemic to potentially become a digitally competitive country with eight out of 10 Malaysians now using digital services or planning to do so in the future.

Hence, digital transformation has become a strategic imperative for every business that wants to stay competitive. She noted that Malaysia's digital economy is set to be worth US$35 billion.

She also said Malaysia is located within a very robust Southeast Asian ecosystem and that digital economy is expected to hit US$363 billion, and by the end of the current decade US$1 trillion.

The second key factor, and an incredibly important one for the group, is the support of government policies.

She said the third factor is that Google Cloud wants to help Malaysia fulfill its potential to become one of the world's most digitally competitive countries.

"Google has invested very heavily in its own Information Technology infrastructure. By offering the same level of security, scalability and reliability to enterprises, we are providing a simpler, faster and more cost efficient way for organisations of all sizes to achieve their desired outcomes," she said.

Meanwhile, Finance Minister Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Abdul Aziz, in a video message, said cloud service providers like Google Cloud can play a significant role to accelerate the MyDigital blueprint implementation.

It has been envisaged that cloud technology will become one of the key enablers to realise the country's digital aspirations and to transform it into a leading digital economy by 2030.

He said successful digital transformation requires cooperation from the government, the private sector, the academia and all levels of society.

The Google Cloud announcement underscores the country's private-public sector partnership approach has bearings on high quality investments in digital infrastructure in the country; the country is on track to reach its target of RM70 billion by 2025, he said.

"Having announced its most significant infrastructure investment in Malaysia to date, and to complement its existing partnerships and programmes, I look forward to hearing more about how Google cloud technology and innovation capabilities are accelerating the transformation of key sectors.

"We encourage traditional businesses of all sizes, for example, the retail, manufacturing, media and entertainment, education and healthcare sectors, to capitalise on enablers, such as Google Cloud, to improve operational efficiencies and to capture new domestic and international growth opportunities," he said.

-- BERNAMA