Data-center law in Equatorial Guinea

Ley Núm. 2/1988 de 25 de marzo, sobre Régimen de Instalación, Ampliación y Traslado de Industrias en la República de Guinea Ecuatorial, art. 5

Applies to both

Article 1 declares industry, as an instrument of production, part of the integrated national patrimony and subordinate to the Nation's supreme interest, and subjects it to this Law.

Article 5(a) bars installing a new industry, or relocating or expanding an existing one, without a prior favourable resolution of the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Business Promotion; a data centre, as a new industrial installation, falls within this general siting-authorisation requirement absent a more specific exemption. Article 5(f) lets the Government designate, by decree, national areas of preferred installation for particular industries as 'polígonos industriales' (industrial zones).

The Act's final provision ties commencement to the date of its publication in the Official Gazette without stating that date, so no effective date beyond the 25 March 1988 adoption is recorded.

Source: Full text of law

Ley Núm. 7/2003 de 27 de noviembre, Reguladora del Medio Ambiente en Guinea Ecuatorial, arts. 111-135 (régimen de autorización y de licencia medioambiental)

Applies to both

Article 115 sorts every activity capable of affecting the environment, safety, or health into a catalogue by potential incidence, subjecting the higher tiers (Anexo I) to an integrated environmental authorisation regime and a middle tier (Anexo II) to an environmental licence regime, each administered by the Ministry of Fisheries and Environment or, for lower-tier activities, the municipality.

Article 111 subjects any activity related to agricultural, industrial, or urban land use capable of contaminating the environment to a governmental authorisation from the competent department, on a prior report from the National Environment Committee. Article 120 sets the authorisation procedure, which includes an assessment of the project's sufficiency, an evaluation of the environmental impact, and, where applicable, a formal declaration of environmental impact before a resolution issues.

The Act's own final provision ties commencement to a specific day in January 2004, but that day is not legibly reproduced in the available scanned copy, so no effective date is recorded beyond the Act's 27 November 2003 adoption.

Source: Full text of law

Ley Núm. 7/1992, de 30 de abril, sobre Régimen de Inversiones en la República de Guinea Ecuatorial, as amended by Ley Núm. 2/1994

Applies to both

Article 5 channels approval of an investment project, foreign or domestic, through the Ministry (originally Planning, later Economy and Finance under the 1994 amendment), which automatically approves a project not on the negative list of reserved activities within 60 days, and requires the application to detail any adverse environmental, worker-safety, or health impact and the measures proposed to avoid or limit it.

Article 7 grants an approved project automatic incentives, including a payroll-linked income-tax base reduction for new national jobs, a training-cost deduction, and export-related tax credits. Article 9 exempts an approved project from prior import or export licensing requirements and from ad hoc levies on imports or exports.

Its final provision ties entry into force to the date of its publication in the national information media without stating that date, so no effective date beyond the 30 April 1992 adoption is recorded.

Source: Full text of law