Korn warns the government to set clear regulations before approving foreign Data Center projects, citing examples of several countries that have come to realize the consequences, leading to massive losses of resources and energy.
On 29 Jul 2026 GMT+7, reporters reported that Korn Chatikavanich, Deputy Leader of the Democrat Party, posted on Facebook about the need to reconsider Data Centers. He stated that in early July, the Democrat Party urgently submitted a motion to the parliament to establish a special committee to study the investment value of Data Centers after BOI applications surged to 54 projects worth 1.7 trillion baht. This figure shows that "foreigners are interested in investing in Thailand," which sounds huge, but this business structure requires high capital, with key machinery and technology imported from abroad, and most profits sent back to parent companies. Actual employment per project is only in the hundreds to thousands. Therefore, questions arise about what Thailand truly gains compared to the resources it must sacrifice, as many questions remain unanswered, such as
1. Many projects apply under the label "warehouse," avoiding the need for an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) even though they consume industrial-scale electricity and water. Meanwhile, the BOI has only recently started requiring financial guarantees and PUE standards for new applications but these do not apply retroactively to already approved projects.
2. Regarding energy, it remains unclear who bears the cost. The Ministry of Energy plans to introduce a special "Type 9" electricity tariff specifically for data centers because the cost of imported LNG is rising with electricity demand surging nearly 30,000 megawatts. Although the Direct PPA mechanism allows purchasing clean energy directly, it is optional, not mandatory. The question is, if data centers do not choose clean energy, who in the system will bear the remaining cost burden?
3. No one has answered who is responsible for evaluating long-term impacts both before and after operations begin.
Several countries have started to slow down or ban such projects.
Korn also compared countries that have implemented data center projects, stating that currently
1. South Korea now takes up to 12 months to approve electricity connections for data centers in Seoul, up from 2-3 months, as the government encourages spreading projects outside the capital.
2. Japan enforces energy efficiency standards requiring new data centers built from 2029 onward to have a PUE no greater than 1.3, and publicly disclose annual electricity usage on their websites.
3. Singapore suspended all new data center approvals since 2019, later gradually reopening with strict quotas and high energy standards.
4. Malaysia’s Johor state suspended approvals for projects with high water usage until 2027 due to concerns about water shortages.
5. The United States, specifically New York, has suspended approvals for new data center projects.
6. The Netherlands has banned new data center construction within urban areas.
Korn added that all these countries have slowed projects to carefully consider all aspects before losing resources and public trust irreversibly. Therefore, Thailand should use the opportunity of establishing the special committee to set clear regulations now, before already approved and pending projects proceed further.