Data-center law in Timor-Leste

National jurisdiction · as of 2026-09-06

Timor-Leste has no data-centre-specific siting, permitting, or utility statute; a data-centre project is governed by the general framework of the Law on Private Investment (Law No. 15/2017).

The Law offers a state land lease of up to one hundred years and the possibility of Special Economic or Industrial Zones to any qualifying investor, but its dedicated income-tax and sales-tax exemptions reach only the economic activities its own Annex lists, and the Annex as published names agriculture, manufacturing, accommodation and tour-operator activities rather than an information, communication, or data-processing activity, so the Law does not establish that a data-centre project qualifies for those specific fiscal exemptions.

Electricity-grid interconnection, water use, and environmental review for a data-centre project are not addressed here for this jurisdiction.

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?

Lei do Investimento Privado (Law on Private Investment)

In force

Law No. 15/2017 of 23 August (Lei do Investimento Privado)

Effective 2018-01-01 · Applies to both

Timor-Leste's Law No. 15/2017 of 23 August, the Law on Private Investment, establishes the general basis of the legal regime for private investment. Article 53 repeals Law No. 14/2011. It grants a holder of a benefits declaration or a special investment agreement a right to at least five work visas for qualified staff. It also gives an option for the State to lease State-owned real estate to the project for up to fifty years, renewable in twenty-five-year periods to a total of one hundred years.

The Government may grant special benefits to designated zones and may create Special Economic Zones and Special Industrial Zones for specific economic activities. Chapter VI's income-tax and sales-tax exemptions reach only the economic activities the Law's own Annex lists.

The Annex as published names agriculture, manufacturing industries, accommodation, and tour-operator activities; it does not name an information, communication, or data-processing activity, so the Law does not establish that a data-centre project qualifies for those exemptions. The Law states no environmental-review, energy-grid-interconnection, or water-use duty of its own.

Source: Full text of law