Jakarta.Indonesia’s lack of skilled workers is hampering efforts to attract high-tech investment, with TikTok choosing Thailand over Indonesia for a data center despite Indonesia being its largest market in Southeast Asia, a senior investment official said Thursday.

TikTok has more than 160 million users in Indonesia every month, compared with about 50 million in Thailand.

“For TikTok, because the biggest market of TikTok in this region is Indonesia. But the data center of TikTok is in Thailand,” Nurul Ichwan, the Investment Ministry’s deputy for investment promotion, said at the Investor Daily Summit 2026 at Raffles Jakarta.

“When we checked with them, what was the reason behind that you finally chose Thailand instead of Indonesia? They mentioned that we are not supported by sufficient enough manpower, talent that could support the operations of this data center,” he said.

Thailand’s Board of Investment approved $25 billion TikTok project in May to expand data infrastructure and data-processing capacity across Bangkok and neighboring provinces, reinforcing the country’s role as a regional digital hub.

The case highlights a broader challenge for Indonesia as it seeks to attract investment that brings technology, higher-value jobs and deeper integration into global supply chains, rather than simply more capital.

“It means that now the question in our homework is about how could we create the education center of having the graduations that will match with the technology operations,” Nurul said.

Indonesia is projected to need about 12 million digital workers by 2030, while the government estimates a shortfall of roughly 3 million. The Communications and Digital Ministry has set a target of producing 600,000 digital talents a year to narrow the gap. The shortage comes as competition for digital infrastructure investment intensifies across Southeast Asia.

He said Indonesia was mapping the technology required across its downstream programs to ensure the country could support more advanced production.

Nugraheni Utami, chief country representative of the US-ASEAN Business Council, said regulatory predictability was another key consideration for companies deciding where to invest and expand.

“Investment aftercare actually is really important, because we don't want an investor coming here, and they also have been struggling complying the regulation, especially when the regulation often change,” Utami said.

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