Thailand's Industrial Parks Brace for Data Center Boom
Thailand's industrial parks are preparing for a surge in data center investment, with 3,000 rai already reserved and regulators expected to approve 60-70 pending projects if electricity rates and infrastructure standards are clarified.
Sumeth Tangpresertsri, governor of the Industrial Estates Authority of Thailand, said data center demand is becoming a major driver of Thailand's industrial parks market. Approximately 3,000 rai of land has already been reserved across the country's industrial zones, with 60-70 projects pending regulatory approval. If regulators establish clear standards for electricity rates and utility infrastructure, officials forecast that more than 90 percent of data center operators will invest in industrial parks immediately. The authority projects year-end land sales will reach 7,000 rai annually, fueled by continuous foreign direct investment from Singapore, Hong Kong, China, Europe, South Korea, and Japan. The challenge now is whether Thailand has sufficient land available, as current reserves stand at only 20,000 rai; the authority plans to increase capacity to 30,000-40,000 rai to meet future demand.
In the first nine months of fiscal 2025, industrial park sales and leases totaled 6,000 rai, with strong activity in data centers, logistics, agriculture, and electric vehicles. Top investment sectors in the first quarter included other manufacturing-related activities, electrical appliances, food processing, vehicles, and chemicals.
Although modern high-tech factories require less space per unit due to technological advances, continued expansion of industrial-support services and rising foreign direct investment requests—valued at 1.5 trillion baht by the Board of Investment—are driving land demand. To accommodate the new wave of investment, the authority is shifting infrastructure strategy toward "New Utilities," opening energy and utility projects to private-sector participation rather than relying entirely on state investment. The authority is also collaborating with PTT, the Energy Ministry, and the Finance Ministry to develop smart industrial parks as low-carbon utility zones, incorporating carbon capture and storage technology, with expected investment value in the hundreds of billions of baht.
Sumeth added that the authority is expanding beyond simply hosting factories to managing entire industrial ecosystems through circular economy industrial parks designed to manage production, consumption, and electronic waste recycling, coordinating with the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission. Simultaneously, the authority is accelerating efforts to bring unlicensed and non-compliant factories into the regulated industrial park system to ensure stricter pollution control and environmental management standards.
