What you need to know
- Microsoft will invest $1 billion in Malaysia over the next five years.
- The investment comes as part of a partnership that includes new data centers and creating a data center region.
- Microsoft will also help up to one million people in Malaysia gain digital skills.
As reported by Reuters, the new partnership program will include Microsoft working with Malaysian government agencies as well as Malaysian companies.
The Malaysian government gave the conditional go-ahead to Microsoft, Google, and Amazon to build and manage hyper-scale data centers and to provide cloud services. The Malaysian government also gave conditional approval to telecoms firm Telekom Malaysia.
Malaysia saw a significant drop in foreign direct investment last year. The drop of 68% is the largest drop in Southeast Asia. The Malaysian finance minister recently spoke on attracting more companies through incentives, as reported by Reuters.
By working with Microsoft, Google, and Amazon, Malaysia could counteract the drop that it's seen in foreign direct investment.
Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin outlined that the move by Microsoft will create a data center region, which will include multiple data centers in Malaysia that will handle data from several countries. This is Microsoft's first data center region, according to the Prime Minister.
"The upcoming datacenter region will be a game-changer for Malaysia," said Microsoft executive vice president Jean-Philippe Courtois, adding that the program will allow the Malaysian government and businesses to "transform" their operations.
