Minister David Clark is excited with the potential Southland has to became a kind of data centre capital for the country.
The Minister of Commerce and Consumer Affairs and for the Digital Economy and Communications visited Invercargill yesterday to speak to members of Southland Chamber of Commerce about the Government’s Budget, released last week.
Speaking to the Otago Daily Times after the event, Mr Clark celebrated the great number of opportunities emerging in the region in relation to the data centre region.
Since last year, three initiatives have been announced for Southland — Datagrid’s $2 billion hyperscale datacentre in Makarewa, T4 Group’s first Tier 4 data centre in Invercargill and Grid Share’s data centre performing Bitcoin mining at the Monowai Power Station.
When asked if he believed the region could became the capital of the industry in the country, Mr Clark said it was an exciting moment for the region.
"I think people are seeing the opportunity with the smelter energy so that conversation is an ongoing one. I think it is really exciting. I think the case makes it self. It is cooler here, it’s geographically diverse to their offering and the energy is here."
