Malaysia is well on its way to becoming the region’s data centre hub. Incentives are being created to ensure the country becomes the preferred destination for data centres, and more will be introduced to accommodate artificial intelligence (AI) data centres, according to the Ministry of Investment, Trade and Industry.

Gearing up to meet data centre demands

The good news is the labour market has improved considerably for young people globally since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic more than four years ago. Last year, 13% of the world’s young labour force – that is, individuals aged 15 to 24 – were unemployed, according to data from the International Labour Organization (ILO). It was the lowest rate in 15 years and a decrease from pre-pandemic times in all but three subregions. In those three subregions – the Arab states, East Asia and Southeast Asia and the Pacific – the youth unemployment rate in 2023 was higher than in 2019. In Southeast Asia and the Pacific (under which Malaysia falls), the unemployment rate grew to 9.9%, from 8.9% in 2019.

Global employment trends among youth

In the second part of the infographic series on why sustainability is good business, done in collaboration with Thoughts in Gear, the focus will be on how sustainability risks can be understood and managed.

Understanding and managing risk

Data centre capacity in Asia-Pacific is expected to more than double by 2028, involving a total investment of about US$564 billion (RM2.5 trillion), according to Moody’s Rating.

How Malaysia stacks up against peers in data centre development  

On Aug 5, stock markets around the world were sent into a tailspin as the Nikkei 225 plunged 12.4%, or 4,451.28 points, in a single trading day. The malaise spread across Asian equity markets, and the local benchmark FBM KLCI was not spared either, tumbling 74.57 points, or 4.63%, and giving up gains made over the past three months.

Six stock market crashes that every investor should know about

The average cost of a data breach has surged to US$4.88 million in 2024, up from US$4.45 million in 2023 — a 10% increase and the highest rise since the Covid-19 pandemic, according to IBM’s Cost of a Data Breach 2024 report. This spike is attributed to higher costs of lost business, including operational downtime and customer attrition, as well as increased expenses for post-breach responses like staffing customer service help desks and paying higher regulatory fines.