Singapore urged to speed up data-centre approvals

The report recommended targeted workforce programs.

Singapore must move faster on permits, secure reliable clean energy, and grow its digital talent pool to maintain its data-centre leadership, according to a new roadmap from the Asia Pacific Data Centre Association (APDCA).

The APDCA outlined a four-part strategy—Enable, Compete, Uplift, Anticipate—designed to guide governments in building investor confidence and accelerating infrastructure deployment.

It highlighted three immediate priorities: faster permitting, affordable clean energy, and skilled talent. These factors are increasingly decisive in determining where global capital is deployed.

The roadmap urged governments to expand grid capacity and renewable generation, emphasising the importance of power purchase agreements (PPAs) in giving operators energy certainty.

The report recommended targeted workforce programs, including apprenticeships and industry-aligned training in areas such as data-centre operations, cloud services, and advanced engineering.

Without these, it warns, countries risk losing the long-term economic benefits tied to data infrastructure investments.

The final pillar focuses on future-readiness. Governments are encouraged to anticipate next-generation demands from AI-native, edge, and quantum computing.

The report highlighted Singapore’s Centre for Strategic Futures and early-stage quantum funding as examples of forward-looking planning that others can emulate.

In Singapore, it noted that digital adoption is high, with 98% internet penetration and 93% smartphone usage.

The data-centre sector contributes more than $2b to the economy annually, supports up to 1.6 million jobs, and delivers 35% higher wages than the national average. It is also one of the most land-efficient industries, generating $59.9m per hectare—85% above the national average.

Looking to 2030, the sector is projected to nearly triple in employment and grow nearly ninefold in economic value compared to 2022. Singapore’s role as a digital hub is central to this trajectory: it hosts around 7,000 multinational companies, including 4,200 regional headquarters that rely on local, low-latency infrastructure.

Globally, the country ranks third in AI and fifth in innovation, with 99% of citizen–government interactions now conducted online.