Funds for data centre approved
The National Geo-Informatics Committee yesterday approved an initial 20-billion-baht budget for the establishment of a national data centre in the Eastern Economic Corridor for Innovation (EECI).
Currently, the overall budget for all state agency spending on their own data centres is valued at 20 billion baht a year.
The committee, chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Somkid Jatusripitak, has authorised the Geo-Informatics and Space Development Agency (GISTDA) to be a centre for gathering resources from other related agencies to help establish the National Data Centre in the EECI.
The EECI is an innovation and research and development centre intended to help private companies that have investment projects in the Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC).
The move aims to ensure their readiness to serve investor demand as geoinformatics is a significant component required by investors.
“Japanese investors who have expressed interest in the EEC have also requested that we accelerate development of the National Data Centre there,” said Mr Somkid.
Once the budget is approved, the GISTDA will have to move for ward to design the data synchronisation plan. Geo-informatics is the data related to geography, including a country’s water levels, logistics, tourism, remote sensing, maps, statistics and other relevant information.
Mr Somkid said the investors had requested the data centre as the information is currently gathered separately by each state agency and intended for internal use, causing confusion among data users.
“We immediately agreed that we needed to set up the data centre as soon as possible, as we should synchronise data at a single centre so that investors or even public agencies can access all the correct data at a single location,” he said.
The National Data Centre will rent the space at the ECCI.
The EECI project’s first phase is set to be located on a 350 rai plot in Wang Chan valley, Rayong province, with an eye towards setting up the infrastructure to serve demand for tenants engaging in research and development.
The EECI project is slated to be considered by the Eastern Economic Corridor Policy Committee, chaired by Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha, soon.
Construction of the first phase, set to take two and a half years, is expected to start this year if approval is granted by the committee.
The entire EECI project will be developed in five years on 2,000 rai with total investment of 1 billion baht.