​1. Geographic position

Dong Nai is a south – eastern province of The Socialist Republic of Viet Nam, with an area of 5,894.73 km2, accounting for 1.76% of the nation natural area or 25.5% of the South - eastern natural area. Population to the 2006 is 2,254,676 with a density of 380,37 people/km2. According to the 2006 census, the natural increment of population is 1,22%. It has 11 dependent administrative units: Bien Hoa City, political, economic and social center of the province, Long Khanh town and the districts of Long Thanh, Nhon Trach, Trang Bom, Thong Nhat, Cam My, Vinh Cuu, Xuan Loc, Dinh Quan, Tan Phu.

Dong Nai is situated on the economic hub of southern Viet Nam and bordered by:

+ East by Binh Thuan Province;

+ North-east by Lam Dong Province;

+ North-west by Binh Duong and Binh Phuoc Provinces;

+ South by Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province;

+ West by Ho Chi Minh City.

Dong Nai province has an advantage traffic system with many backbone national roads crossing such as: National route 1A, national route 20, National route 51, North – South railway lines; Locating adjacently to the Saigon Port and Tan Son Nhat International Airport  offers many advantages to economic activities in the location. Its location is very important for the development of the Southern economic main hub and a junction of the South Eastern and Tay Nguyen Highland.

2. Topography

Dong Nai Province has topography of a plain and flat land with rare scattered, mountains and a gradual declivity in the southward direction. We can distinguish following topographical forms:

a) Topography of a plain with two main forms:

- River platforms are 5 to 10 meter high, even only 2 to 5 meter high along rivers and form narrow strips the width of which varies from about 20 meters to some kilometers. Soils on this topography are mainly modern alluvia.

- Hollow topography on sea marshy sediments: They are hollow land area in Dong Nai Province, the height of which varies from to 0.3 to 2 meters; several places are lower than the area level, permanently flooded by tides; other places are criss – crossed by rivers and covered by flooded salted forests. Materials are not homogeneous and consist mainly of clay and settled organic substances.

b) Undulating topography:

 Its height is 20 to 200 meters, consisting of basaltic hills. The relief surface is very flat with slope from 30 to 80. This kind of relief occupies a very large area compared with other topographies, consisting mostly of basalt and ancient alluvia. Here, soils are red, yellow or grey.

c) Relief of low mountains:

It consists of scattered remaining mountains which are the southeast part of the Truong Son chain with a height of 200 to 800 meters. This relief is mainly distributed in the modern part of the province, on the border between Tan Phu district and Lam Dong province, in Dinh Quan and Xuan Loc districts with some remaining mountains. All these mountains are some 20 – 200 meters high with open – cast base rocks consisting mainly of granite and clayey rocky schist.

 In general, land in Dong Nai has a relatively flat relief, 82,09% of which have a slope <80, 9.2% a slope < 150 and 8% a slope > 150.

- Alluvial soils, clayey soils and sandy soils have a flat topography; many hollow places are flooded all year round.

- Most of black, brown and grey soils have a slope < 80; most of red soils have a slope < 150.

- In particular, thin – layered soils and porous rocks have a high slope.

3. Land source

Dong Nai Province has a varied and fertile land funds. There are 10 main groups of soils. However, based on land origin and quality soils may be divided into the following 3 general groups.

- Soils formed on a basalt base, such as porous soils, black soils and very fertile red soils, accounting for 39.1% of the province natural area (229.416ha) distributed in the northern and north – eastern part of the province. These soils are appropriate for short and long – term industrial trees: rubber trees, coffee, pepper…

- Soils formed on a base of ancient alluvia and schist’s of clayey rocks: grey soils, brown gray soils and party-coloured soils, accounting for 41.9% of natural area (246.380 ha), distributed in the southern, and south – eastern parts of the province (Vinh Cuu, Thong Nhat, Long Thanh and Nhon Trach districts, and Bien Hoa city). These soils are not very fertile, appropriate for short – term tress: beans, a number of fruit trees and perennial industrial trees, such as cashew…

- Other soils formed on a base of new alluvia, such as alluvia soils, sandy soil, distributed mainly along Dong Nai and La Nga rivers. They are fertile appropriate for many trees, such as food trees, vegetables, fruit trees…

- As prescribed by the land law, land inventory is made once every 5 years on 18.08.1999 the Prime Minister issued directive no.24/1999/TC – TTg about general land inventory in 2000. The Cadastre and Real – estate Technical Centre was empowered to work in coordination with Cadastre offices in districts, villages, wards and towns in the province to carry out the 2000’s general land inventory. Data of general land inventory were examined and accepted for uniform use in the whole province for the period 2001 – 2005.

The province total area is 589,473 ha, of which:

- Area of agricultural land: 302,845 ha.

- Area of forested land: 179,807 ha.

- Area of land for special use: 68,018 ha.

- Area of land for dwelling houses: 10,546 ha.

- Area of unused land, rivers, springs, mountains: 28,255 ha.

Dong Nai has 10 main groups of land (soils):

- Gray soils: 40.05% of the province natural area, appropriate for agricultural production and construction.

- Black soils: 22.44% of the natural area, appropriate for annual trees.

- Red soils: 19.27% of the natural area, very appropriate for perennial industrial trees.

- Besides, Groups of alluvia soils (4.76%) appropriate for paddy, vegetables and other land:

- Forested land: 292,611 ha

- Agriculture land: 174,762 ha.

- Land for special use: 70,286 ha.

- Land for dwelling houses: 10,975 ha.           

Over the past years the use of land in the province underwent more or less changes. But at present, Dong Nai is still the province which possesses the largest area of agricultural land in the eastern region of South Viet Nam.

4. Climate

Dong Nai lies in the monsoon tropical zone and is affected by the north-east and south-west monsoon. It is also put under the influence of Pacific Ocean tropic atmosphere between April and October. Climate is cloven in two distinct seasons. The rainy season lasts from March or April to November and the dry season from December to March or April of the following year. Average temperature goes between 23.9 – 290C, much lower than standard level of the tropical regions (26-300C). Its rainfall is quite high with 1,500mm – 2,700mm.

On average, the weather is sunny for 4-9.5 hours a day and does not exceed 11.5 hours per day, even on the hottest and sunniest days. Total rainy days within a year are between 120 - 170 days (standard level of tropical region is 150 - 160 days) with total rainfall of some 1,500 - 2,750 mm. The average humidity is around 80 - 82% and humidity in the dry season is 10 - 12% lower than that of the rainy season. The humidity is inconsiderably differential among the areas.

Dong Nai province's weather with regular sunshine, rain and high humidity equally found in the localities facilitates agricultural production and development of industry and cultural and tourism activities.

5. Society – Culture

Some data about society and culture on 1st half of 2005:

- Number of sick exemption: 1,883,278 people time, 89.90% in comparison with last year.

- Number of babies was injected all kind of vaccine: 406 babies, 57.10% in comparison with last year.

- Number of high school pupil in midyear: 473,500 pupils, 98.10% in comparison with last year.

- Number of high school teacher in midyear: 17,030 teachers, 101.10% in comparison with last year.

- Number of new job created: 44,035 people, 100.70% in comparison with last year.

- Number of persons attended vocational training: 27,147 people, 77.20% in comparison with last year.