The Philippines must strengthen its digital infrastructure and regulatory support to keep pace with regional peers in artificial intelligence (AI), according to Carlo Malana, president and CEO of ST Telemedia Global Data Centres (STT GDC) Philippines.

In an interview with the DAILY TRIBUNE, Malana stressed that the country needs to focus on the fundamentals — power supply, build capacity, and supportive regulations — to enable faster development of data center infrastructure.

“I think at this point, we’ve talked about the basics for digital infrastructure — we need power and the ability to build. We also need physical infrastructure, so having ample regulatory support to build facilities is important,” he said.

He added that the Philippines must compete with neighbors such as Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam, where governments are actively making it easier to develop infrastructure.

Malana said STT GDC is ramping up investments locally, including building what it described as the largest data center campus in the country and expanding operations in Cavite.

“So when we look at investments, there’s a strong commitment from STT GDC in the Philippines — we’re building the largest data center campus in the country. It’s not a PowerPoint presentation; it’s operational. We’ve also been able to make a second site in Cavite operational,” he said.

However, he noted that execution speed will be critical as demand for AI services accelerates.

“Now, how fast can we accelerate? Because quite honestly, the demand for AI services seems to have started increasing in the last few months,” Malana said.