Manila, 1 September 2022 - Philippine infrastructure requirements are changing as the world transitions to a more digitalized economy.
The Philippines logged one of the highest growth rates as an emerging data center market alongside Malaysia and Thailand, supporting the active digital profile of Filipinos.1 As the Philippines holds the second-largest subscriber base in the Asia Pacific region, hyperscalers are motivated to build their technology and communications infrastructure throughout the archipelago. The Philippines has attracted data center operators due to the local population's high digital consumption. Philippine internet economy by Gross Merchandise Value doubled to USD 17 billion in 2021, driven by government initiatives and mass digital adoption due to the pandemic. Data shows that the number of internet and social media users in the Philippines rose by 6.1% in 2020 and 22% in 2021, with 89 million active social media users in 2021.2 More than the number of internet users, Filipinos are also a "sizeable tech-savvy population with stronger digital appetite and adoption to technology." The latest statistics show that the Philippines has 74 million internet users who spend 10.5 hours online, the longest in the world.
The Arcadis Data Center Location Index 20213 ranked the Philippines as one of the most attractive countries to build data centers globally. The COVID-19 pandemic has provided a significant boost to the Philippine data center market, in view of the increasing dependence on technology. This resulted in increased colocation uptake by existing customers and significant investments in new data centers and cloud regions. The growing demand for colocation, internet and cloud services necessitated the establishment of sophisticated in-country facilities.
Access Quisumbing Torres' Developing and Operating Data Centers in the Philippines to learn more about the key legal issues for data center investors. The guide provides the relevant regulatory information including issues and considerations related to:
- Foreign investment controls
- Data (i.e., privacy, telecommunications laws, cybersecurity, data localization, antitrust)
- Tax
- M&A
- Financing
- Sustainability
- Real estate