A “GOLDEN TIME” FOR INDUSTRY
To drive along Thailand’s sprawling EEC area, which encompasses Chachoengsao, Chonburi and Rayong provinces, is to witness a landscape transformed.
Where fishing villages, rice fields and orchards once dominated, multilane expressways now cut through vast industrial estates, linking deep-sea ports, power stations and manufacturing plants.
In recent times, the data-centre boom has landed in the EEC too.
Three major facilities are already operating or expanding, while nine more are under construction, according to industry tracking data.
Government figures also show that overall, 29 data-centre projects have applied for investment incentives in the EEC, making up more than half of all such applications nationwide.
Thailand sees it as an opportunity to revive economic growth and attract investment and higher-skilled jobs as projects spill over from more constrained markets such as Singapore and Malaysia, said Kwankamol Chittrakul, a civil engineer and expert in water resources management.
For now, developers were taking advantage of a window of opportunity before Thailand introduced stricter environmental regulations for data centres, she said.
“It’s a golden time. If you don’t do it now, it will be more difficult in the future,” she said.
