Data-center law in Brunei Darussalam

National jurisdiction · as of 2026-09-06

Brunei has no data-centre-specific siting, permitting, or utility statute; a data-centre project is governed by the general investment-incentive framework of the Investment Incentives Act (Cap. 97, Act 5 of 1975), administered by the Economic Development Board.

The Act lets the Board declare an industry and its products a 'pioneer industry' and 'pioneer product' by statutory order on application, after which a certified pioneer company receives a tax relief period of 2 years or more, scaled to its fixed capital expenditure, plus import-duty exemptions on productive equipment and raw materials; the base Act names no sector itself, so whether information technology, cloud computing, or data-centre operation qualifies turns on whether a subsidiary pioneer-industry order has declared it one, and no such order naming information technology or data infrastructure is identified below.

No provision addresses electricity grid interconnection, water use, or air emissions specifically.

Instruments on record

1 instrument on record, grouped by the family of approval each one governs.

Public agreements

What fiscal agreements attach a data center to its host jurisdiction?

Investment Incentives Act, pioneer status and tax relief

In force

Investment Incentives Act (Cap. 97), Act 5 of 1975, ss. 3, 13

Effective 1975-05-01 · Applies to private

Section 3 lets the Economic Development Board, on a member of the public's representation and after a Gazette notice-and-objection process, make a statutory order declaring an industry not yet carried on in Brunei Darussalam on a suitable commercial scale to be a 'pioneer industry' and its output a 'pioneer product'; the base Act itself names no industry, so whether data-centre operation, cloud computing, or another information-technology activity qualifies depends on a subsidiary pioneer-industry order that no available text names.

Once a company holding a pioneer certificate reaches its production day, section 13 fixes its tax relief period at 2 years where its fixed capital expenditure is under $250,000, rising in tiers for larger investments, during which its income from the pioneer enterprise is exempt from income tax (s. 21) and dividends paid from that income are exempt in the recipient's hands (s. 22).

Part V separately exempts productive equipment and raw materials imported for an approved enterprise from import duties, subject to a restriction on disposing of the equipment during the relief period. The Act is silent on electricity grid interconnection, water utilities, environmental review, or air-emissions permitting for any enterprise, data-centre or otherwise.

Source: Full text of law