Indonesia's communications and digital ministry has welcomed an investment it puts at USD 2.3 billion, or roughly Rp37 trillion, from the Dubai-based EDGNEX to build a large data centre in the country. The site is 12 hectares in the Cikarang industrial area of West Java, and the first phase is targeted for completion in 2026, with construction continuing into 2028.

That is the announcement. The rest is the government's running commentary on national capacity, and it is worth reading as such.

The base under the growth rate

According to the ministry, Indonesia began the current administration with 180 megawatts of national data centre capacity in October 2024, and that figure had risen to 290 megawatts. It projects 900 megawatts by the end of 2025 and says the country may need between 1.5 and 2 gigawatts within two years. For comparison, it puts Malaysia at about 400 megawatts.

A move from 180 to 290 megawatts is a large percentage and a small absolute number. The ambition is measured against a market that was, until recently, thin: 290 megawatts is a fraction of what a single metro in Japan or northern Virginia carries. The minister, Meutya Hafid, describes the growth as a sign of investor confidence and stresses that the benefits should reach small businesses and the food, fisheries and health sectors — a social case fastened onto an infrastructure decision.

EDGNEX has committed to a site and a schedule but not to a megawatt figure for the Cikarang campus, and no tenant has been named. The minister also inaugurated a data centre built by DCI Indonesia at Cibitung the same week. Whether the capacity projected for the end of the year is built, and let, is a number a reader can only check later.