Data centers in Singapore could be made subject to new licensing, security, and sustainability requirements under draft legislation put forward by the city-state’s government.The proposed Digital Infrastructure Bill, which is currently out for public consultation, would require those wishing to build and operate data centers to obtain a license from Singapore’s communications regulator, Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA).Any data center larger than 10MW and serving third-party customers would require a license from the IMDA. A separate regime, with different criteria, will be introduced for data centers offering 3MW-9MW.Cloud service providers operating from rented data centers will also require a license if they have generated an average of more than $100m in annual revenue from Singaporean users over a three-year period.The license will require data centers to implement security measures against physical and cyber attacks, as well as to draw up business continuity and disaster recovery plans. They will also be required to notify IMDA of cybersecurity incidents or service delivery disruptions.Alongside this, the legislation gives the IDMA the ability to introduce additional sustainability requirements for data center operators in the future.While most major data center companies are likely to have many of the measures named in the bill already in place, it would add an additional layer of complexity to Singapore's data center market, historically one of Asia’s busiest markets.Singapore has had a moratorium on new data center developments since 2019 (although already authorized facilities were allowed to be built after this point) because of issues of space and power availability.However, this ban was relaxed slightly in July 2022 when the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB) and IMDA announced a pilot scheme allowing companies to bid for permission to develop new facilities.Equinix, GDS, Microsoft, and a consortium of AirTrunk and TikTok-owner ByteDance were collectively allocated 80MW of capacity in 2023.Last December, the EDB and IMDA invited operators to bid to build an additional 200MW of capacity in Singapore.