This project is now under construction, and is expected to open in December. Located on 10 rai (1.6 hectares) in Nong Prue, Bang Lamung district, in Chon Buri province near Pattaya, the site will consist of a 1,400-theatre called “The D’Luck Cinematic” and lifestyle commercial areas.

Further investment will come either from new cloud funding or bank loans.

Siriwat, who is also chairman of the board of Panjaluck Pasuk, said yesterday that his company had partnered with Scenario, an entertainment company; Baan Rig, an internationally renowned entertainment-rigging and special-effects specialist; Xtreme Plus, a world-class provider of interactive-multimedia and projection-mapping expertise; and creative house Sanookdee Thaweesuk to create “KAAN Show”, which was inspired by famous figures of Thai literature, namely Ramayana, Prince Aphai Mani and Krai Thong.

Ticket prices start at Bt2,000 per seat.

“I believe in the potential of the tourism industry inPattaya, particularly after the opening of U-tapao Airport to commercial airlines. This will bring more foreign tourists into this region,” managing director Karnkridit Nimsombun said.

Karnkridit said domestic tourists were also important, so the company had designed this project to welcome local sponsors. By the end of next year, it targets revenue of Bt700 million to Bt800 million. To make that happen, the theatre should have an average occupancy rate of 60-70 per cent.

Apart from sales from tickets and merchandise, the company is looking for revenue from sponsors and business partners.

Siriwat said that with support from Maybank Kim Eng Securities (Thailand), the company was planning to list on the Stock Exchange of Thailand in three years.

After that, the company will expand its business to other key tourist destinations such as Bangkok, Phuket and Chiang Mai.

“The Supernap Thailand data centre is a mirror of Switch Supernap US facilities, which are the first Tier IV Gold carrier-neutral co-location data centres on the planet.

“This cutting-edge data centre will meet the global demand for innovation in Asia-Pacific,” Khaled Bichara, chief executive officer of Supernap International, said yesterday.

Located at the Hemaraj Industrial Estate in Chon Buri, the facility is expected to open in a year with capacity of more than 6,000 data server racks.

“We look forward to working with Thailand to attract more investment and more growth to the Thai digital economy,” he said.

The project will cover nearly 75 rai (12 hectares) of land outside the flood zone and 110 metres above sea level.

It is 27 kilometres away from the international-submarine-cable landing station, which links the facility to national and international telecommunications and information-technology carriers.

It is developed by Supernap Thailand, a joint venture of Supernap International, CPB Equity, Kasikornbank, Siam Commercial Bank and True IDC.

The data centre will enhance the banks’ use of technology to serve their customers better and provide a home-grown solution for Thai companies seeking to expand their IT capabilities.

It will be supported by two separate and newly installed power substations to provide additional redundancy and resilience to the facility.

“Not only will Supernap Thailand help grow Thailand’s digital economy, but it will also support Thai companies that seek to expand their offerings to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations,” said Somkid Jiranuntarat, vice chairman of Kasikorn Business-Technology Group.

“We know that ultimately this will support our customers and enable us to do more for the Thai business community and public. Having a world-class data centre is truly a competitive advantage for Thailand.”

Supernap International is the exclusive licensee outside the US of the 218 patents and patents pending in data centre technologies held by Switch Supernap founder and CEO Rob Roy.

It has more than 1,000 clients with the likes of eBay, Intel, Dreamworks, HP, Intuit, Hitachi, Sony, Boeing, Cisco, Google, Amazon and Time Warner.