He urged the government to speed up the rezoning of more land in Tseung kwan O for data center use. "Without enough space, companies will move their data centers to Singapore--this is definitely what the government and industry don't want to see," Tam said. He also suggests Northern Lantau as another possible location for data center development, though the area's far from any undersea cables.

Charles Mok, chairman of Internet Society Hong Kong pointed out that the Lok Ma Chau Loop area will be another option for data center use. "The area may not be open for any use in the next 10 to 20 years as both the Shenzhen and Hong Kong governments are planning its usage," said Mok. "But data center development requires long term planning so it might provide some land for this purpose."

He suggested that the local government to plan for the longer term when it comes to data center. "Countries like Singapore look at what needs to be done for a 20-year timeframe," said Mok. "Hong Kong needs to do the same instead of coming up with some one-off measure like this after more than six years of lobbying by the industry."