Beyond the sublease rent, an FDI enterprise in an industrial park pays a basket of infrastructure charges running for the whole project term. These charges have no unified State tariff — they are service prices agreed in the sublease contract with the infrastructure developer under the Article 202 framework of Land Law No. 31/2024/QH15. Understanding each charge and its adjustment mechanism is a precondition for accurate operating-cost forecasting over a project life of 20–50 years.
1. Park operations management fee
The most basic charge, usually calculated per m2 per month on the leased area: it pays for operating common infrastructure — security and order management, internal road lighting, sanitation and landscaping, and the park management team. Levels vary widely between parks due to scale and service standards. When signing, pin down: which services are inside the fee (quantified where possible: patrol frequency, lighting standards), which are optional extras, and the adjustment cycle and cap. The management fee is the charge most often “forgotten” in budgets because the unit price is small, but multiplied by a large area and a long term the accumulated total is anything but small.
2. Maintenance fee for common infrastructure
Some parks separate maintenance (periodic upkeep of internal roads, drainage systems, the central treatment plant) from the management fee; others bundle them. A legal point worth noting: land for common infrastructure inside the park per planning is land on which the developer pays no land rent (clause 3 of Article 202) — the operating cost of that infrastructure is recovered by the developer precisely through these service charges on in-park enterprises. The contract should state: whether extraordinary major maintenance (large damage repairs from natural disasters, upgrades required by new law) can be charged on top of the periodic fee, and the pass-through mechanism — avoid open clauses letting the developer allocate every arising cost down to tenants.
3. Wastewater charges and volume-based fees
Wastewater charges are calculated on actual discharge volume (converted from water supply) and the level of on-site pre-treatment: the enterprise must treat to the central plant’s intake standard (commonly column B of the applicable regulation); discharge above standard draws increased fee coefficients or compensation of extra treatment costs. The volume-based group also includes: water supply charges (the supplier’s tariff plus the park’s service fee if the park redistributes), electricity (the State retail tariff; where the park invested its own substation there may be a transmission service fee), domestic waste and ordinary industrial waste collection fees, and wharf/yard usage fees if any. These charges move with the plant’s actual output — budgets must tie to the production plan, not to the nominal “minimum” levels in the offer price list.
4. Locking fee risk in the contract
Four protective mechanisms: (i) a clear adjustment formula for each recurring fee (reference index, cycle, cap per increase and cumulative cap per 5-year cycle); (ii) a sufficiently long prior-notice right together with the right to be provided the calculation basis (the park’s operating cost report); (iii) a no-retroactivity principle — new fees run only from the payment period after valid notice; (iv) an independent review mechanism when increases exceed a threshold (audit of common infrastructure costs at the request of a tenant group). FDI enterprises should also check across: the land sublease rent reduction the State grants for small and medium enterprises and pollution-relocated facilities under clause 6 of Article 202 is refunded to the developer through deduction against its land rent — if you fall in this class, ask how the benefit is passed through into your sublease.
Frequently asked questions
Is the infrastructure management fee payable to the State?
No. It is a service price paid to the infrastructure developer under a civil contract, in exchange for operating the park’s common infrastructure. An in-park subtenant’s obligations to the State are its own taxes and fees (and the sublease rent paid to the developer); there is no budget-payable “management fee”.
Can the developer freely raise the maintenance fee when repairing park roads?
Only within the adjustment mechanism agreed in the contract. Periodic maintenance sits inside the fees already charged; arising major repair costs may be allocated additionally only if the contract has a clause for this with a transparent pass-through mechanism. An unlimited allocation clause is a risk to fix at the negotiation stage.
If the plant suspends production, are management and wastewater fees waived?
Wastewater charges are volume-based and fall by themselves when production stops; the management fee is a fixed area-based charge — in principle it remains payable unless the contract has a suspension/reduction clause for long shutdowns. This point should be negotiated before signing, not after the shutdown.
Do SME subtenants in parks receive any State-policy fee reduction?
Clause 6 of Article 202 requires the developer to reserve serviced land for lease to small and medium enterprises and pollution-relocated facilities; the State has a policy of reducing sublease rent for these cases, with the reduction refunded to the developer through deduction against the land rent it must pay. Specific reduction levels are set by the provincial People’s Committee according to local conditions — ask directly when negotiating a plot in this reserved class.
