Dak Lak province in the Central Plateau Viet Nam, a land famous for its coffee, rubber and festivals.To Dak Lak to forests, rivers and lakes and majestic waterfalls mix with the cultural space of Tay Nguyen gongs, a "Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Culture" of humanity. The natural area is 13,125 km2 and a population of 1.8 million people of 44 ethnic groups live. The administrative units are: Buon Ma Thuot City, Town Lake and the district of Buon Ea H'Leo, Easup, Krong Nang, Krong Buk, Buon Don, Cu M'gar, Ea Kar, M'Drac, Krong Pac , Krong Ana, Krong Bong, Lak, Cu Kuin. Dak Lak been blessed with vast natural resources, mainly soil gray, basaltic soils, and some other groups. The uniformity of nature and fertility of the soil actually distributed from Buon Ma Thuot plateau stretching 90 km east north-western Pakistan, from the actual terrain is so special ĐăkLăk Srepok river flows back to the west, Cambodia to the land you mingle with the Mekong River to the sea before it is a condition for hydropower development.River Serepok now offers tremendous potential for hydropower, with a total storage capacity of 1,000 MW in Daklak water resources potential for dense system of rivers and lakes. Hundreds of nearly 1,000 lakes and streams.

Forests in Dak Lak is distributed throughout the district with a variety of wood and rare animals, mainly in Yok Don National Park, Nam ka conservation areas, nature reserves Eakar.Natural geographical conditions of Daklak suitable for tourism development, with the river system lakes, streams, waterfalls, such as Serepok River, Lake Lak, Dray Nur, Gia Long waterfall, waterfall ChuYangSing KrongKmar ... national parks, Yok Don, the nature Ea So, Nam Ka: Space of Gong Culture War Highlands as "Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Cultural Heritage to" human and cultural festival features Highland. The system resorts, hotels, amusement parks are spread from Buon Ma Thuot city to the districts and tourist areas.

The industrial area of ​​Daklak very favorable position in the transportation and circulation of goods, labor potential locally abundant, attractive investments such as Hoa Phu Industrial Park (area 181 ha), handicraft clusters Buon Ma Thuot (area 49 ha) in Tan An 1 & 2 (104.75 ha), Ea Dar Industrial Complex (52 ha) Wall Industrial Complex (50 ha).In addition, Industrial 2 of Buon Ma Thuot, Ea H'Leo industrial complex, and in Krong Bong districts with a size of about 50 ha each cluster, detailed planning is being put into operation.

The Dak Lak in the priority directions of investment and industrial development became a key economic sector is growing and the exploitation of farm produce, plants or industrial processing and agricultural exports such as wheat, corn products ... industrial crops such as coffee, rubber, cocoa ... so revenues from economic activity above gives Daklak Province huge budget. Economic sectors such as electricity, construction and other industries such as health, education ... also helped develop a comprehensive economic activities in the province. Besides Dak Lak is located convenient transportation located in central Highlands, the highway system connecting with the other Central Highlands provinces of Khanh Hoa, Phu Yen central coast; with airport Buon Ma Thuot to go directly to Ho Chi Minh City, Danang and Hanoi.

 

I. National Conditions 

1. Geographical location, area, population, administrative units   

Dak Lak province is located in Central Highlands, the upper course of Serepok River and a part of Ba River. Its geographic coordinates are from 107°28'57" to 108°59'37" east longitude and from 12°9'45" to 13°25'06" north latitude with an average elevation about 400 - 800m. Dak Lak is 1,410km far from Ha Noi and 350km from Ho Chi Minh City.

- The East borders Khanh Hoa, Phu Yen provinces;

- The North borders Gia Lai province;

- The South borders Lam Dong, Dak Nong provinces;

- The West borders the Kingdom of Cambodia.

Dak Lak occupies an area of 13,125.37 square kilometers. In 2012, Dak Lak’s population was 1,796,666 people, and the provincial population density was over 137 people per square kilometer. In which, 432,458 people of the population was urbanised and 1,364,208 people living in rural areas. There were approximately 906,619 males and 890,047 females.

There are 47 ethnic minorities living in Dak Lak, of which the Kinh accounts for about 70%, and ethnic minority communities such as:  Ede, M’nong, Thai, Tay, Nung, etc. account for 30 percent of the total population.

The population is unevenly distributed in the districts; populated areas mainly gather in Buon Ma Thuot city, townships, and districts along the National Highways No. 14, 26, 27 as Krong Buk, Krong Pak, Ea Kar, and Krong Ana. Districts with low population density are particularly difficult districts as Ea Sup, Buon Don, Lak, Krong Bong, M'Drak, and Ea H'leo, etc.

In addition to indigenous ethnic minority communities, there are a large number of inter-province migrant ethnic minority communities from northern and central of Viet Nam living in Dak Lak. Due to the free immigration, the population of Dak Lak has mechanical fluctuations in recent years that put great pressure on the province on solving residential land, productive land and social life issues as well as security and order and ecological environment.

In Dak Lak, there are many ethnic minorities co-existing with their own beautiful cultural characters, especially the traditional culture of the E De, M'Nong, Gia Rai ethnic groups.Their gong festival, buffalo-stabbing festival, elephant race together with the architecture of their stilt houses, communal houses, and their traditional musical instruments like gong sets, lithopone, T’rung… and the Central Highland epics are valuable tangible and intangible cultural heritages. Especially, the Space of Gong culture in the Central Highlands was recognized by the UNESCO as the Proclamation of Materpieces of the Oral and Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. They altogether create a rich and diversified culture for the province.

The E De ethnic group, whose language belongs to the Malay- Polynesian linguistic family, mainly resides in Northern and Southern districts: from Ea Hleo, Buon Ho to M’Drak and Buon Ma Thuot city.

The M’nong ethnic group who resides mainly in Southern districts and those along the South – West border uses a language which belongs to Mon-Khmer linguistic family.

* Dak Lak has 15 district-level administrative units including one city, one town and 13 districts; of which, there are 184 communal-level units including 152 communes, 20 wards and 12 townlets.

 

LIST OF ADMINISTRATIVE UNITS IN DAK LAK PROVINCE

 

No.	NAME	Area (Km2)	Population (persons)	Established year
1	Buon Ma Thuot city	377.18	339,879	June 5th, 1930
2	Buon Ho Town	282.52	99,949	Dec. 23rd, 2008
3	Ea Sup district	1.765.63	62,497	Aug. 30th, 1977
4	Krong Nang district	614.79	121,410	Nov. 9th,1987
5	Krong Buk district	357.82	59,892	1976
6	Buon Don district	1.410.40	62,300	Oct. 7th, 1995
7	Cu M’gar district	824.43	168,084	Jan. 23rd, 1984
8	Ea Kar district	1.037.47	146,810	Sep. 13th, 1986
9	M’Drak district	1.336.28	69,014	Aug. 30th, 1977
10	Krong Pak district	625.81	203,113	1976
11	Krong Bong district	1257.49	90,126	Sep. 19th, 1981
12	Krong Ana district	356.09	84,043	Sep. 19th, 1981
13	Lak district	1256.04	62,572	1976
14	Cu Kuin district	288.30	101,854	Aug. 27th, 2007
15	Ea H’Leo district	1,335.12	125,123	Apr. 3rd, 1980

 

2. Topography 
Dak Lak is situated in the western end of Truong Son Range, lying in a large plateau with corrugated, relativelyt flat terrain sloping from the southeast to the northwest, and alternate low plains along main rivers. 
3. Climate 
- The climate of the whole province is divided into two sub regions. The climate of the North West is hot and dry in the dry season; the climate of the South East is cool and pleasant. The province is divided into six agro-ecological zones including:
- Ea Sup plateau sub-region accounts for 28.43% of natural area. 
- Buon Me Thuot - Ea H'Leo plateau sub-region accounts for 16.17% of natural area.
- M'Drak hill and plateau sub-region occupies 15.82% of natural area.
- The plateau sub-region along the Krong Ana - Srepok river occupies 14.51% of the natural area.
- Chu Yang Sin mountainous area accounts for 3.98% of the natural area.
- Rlang Dja mountainous area accounts for 3.88% of the natural area.
In general, the climate is different by regions and the temperature decreases by elevation. The area under 300m is hot by sunshine all year-round, hot and humid from 400m – 80 m, and cool over 800m. However, the rainfall by season may hinder development of agricultural production.
There are two distinct seasons in Dak Lak province: rainy season and dry season. The rainy season is from May to October with 90% of annual rainfall. The dry season lasts November to April next year with a negligible amount of rainfall.

 

II.Natural resources
1. Land resources
Dak Lak province is blessed with land resources. Spreading out on the natural area of 13,085 km2, Dak Lak is endowed with Acrisols, Ferralsols and other types of soil, such as: Fluvisols, Gleysols and Luvisols.
The soil formed from basaltic rocks is rather fertile (pH between neutral and sour, the concentration of protein and phosphorus is quite high). The natural and actual soil fertility is uniformly distributed over the Buon Ma Thuot plateau, which stretches northeast - southwest for about 90 km and is about 70 km wide. The plateau has an altitude of 800 meters above sea level to the north (Ea H'leo), 400 meters to the south, and only 300 meters to the west; the surface is defined by very flat with only a few hills. 
- Fuvisols:
Fluvisols was formed from the sedimentation of rivers, streams. Change of soil characteristics is depended on the weathering products of formed soil samples.
- Gleysols:
Gleysols is distributed in low lying areas of Lak, Krong Ana and Krong Bong districts.
- Acrisols:
As the largest group among the soil groups present in Dak Lak, Acrisols is distributed in most districts of the province. 
- Ferralsol, (mainly the red basaltic soil).
The red basaltic soil is the second largest soil group in Dak Lak (after Acrisols), accounting for 55.6% of total area of red soil in the Central Highlands. The red soil also has good mechanical property with thin bedding or rook structure and 62-65% porosity. With high water infiltration capacity and nutrient uptake, the red soil is really suitable for cultivation of valuable industrial crops such as coffee, rubber, tea, pepper, fruit trees, etc. This is an important advantage for the province’s agriculture development. 
2. Water resources
a)    Surface water resources
With its climate and hydrograph characteristics, Dak Lak has a dense river-lake network with three fairly evenly distributed river systems (Srepok river, Ba river, and Dong Nai river) along with hundreds of reservoirs and 833 streams with a length of more than 10 km.  
b) Groundwater resources
Mainly concentrating in the basalt formation and sediment Neogene and existing in cracks and holes. Total estimated amount of water: Water quality is pale  with mineralization M = 0,1 - 0,5, pH between 7 and 9. The most abundant cations present in water  are Bicarbonate (HCO3) Chloride (CL) - Magnesium (Mg), Calcium (Ca) or Sodium (Na). 
3. Forest resources
After the splitting of the province, Dak Lak has 608,886.2 hectares (ha) of forests including 594,488.9 ha of natural forests and 14,397.3 ha of plantation forests. The forests are evenly distributed in Dak Lak's districts, especially the border corridor with Cambodia.
Dak Lak's forests are abundant, diverse, and generally structured in three layers including wood trees playing a protective role and many kinds of specialty plants with economic and scientific value. The natural regeneration of tree species is quite dense due to the distribution in favorable site conditions. Therefore, Dak Lak's forests play an important role in soil erosion control, water flow regulation and natural disasters mitigation.
Dak Lak's forests have various rare animal species, mainly distributed in Yok Don National Park, Chu Yang Sin National Park and Nam Kar Natural Reserve; including rare species of animals listed in the Vietnam Red Book and IUCN's Red List. Forests and forestry land have important influences on the socio-economic development of the province.

4. Mineral resources
Dak Lak is not only blessed with natural resources, but also abundant and diverse mineral resources. There are many minerals in the province with different reserves with many rare and precious minerals such as clay kaolin (in M'Drak, Buon Ma Thuot - more than 60 million tons), brick clay (Krong Ana, M'Drak, Buon Ma Thuot - over 50 million tons), gold (Ea Kar), lead (Ea H'Leo), phosphorus (Buon Don), peat (Cu M'Gar), gemstones (Opal, Jectit), paving stone, building stone, and construction sand./.

 

III. Services Industries 
1. Banks
* The banking system in Dak Lak province includes:
- Dong A Joint Stock Commercial Bank - Dak Lak Branch
- Vietnam Bank for Agriculture And Rural Development - Dak Lak Branch
- Bank for Investment and Development of Viet Nam - Dak Lak Branch
- Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Foreign Trade of Vietnam - Dak Lak Branch 
- Vietnam Bank for Social Policies - Dak Lak Branch 
- Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Foreign Trade of Vietnam - Dak Lak Branch
- Orient Commercial Joint Stock Bank - Dak Lak Branch
- Kien Long Commercial Joint Stock Bank - Dak Lak Branch
- Saigon Thuong Tin Commercial Joint Stock Bank - Dak Lak Branch
- Asia Commercial Joint Stock Bank - Dak Lak Branch
- State Bank of Vietnam - Dak Lak Branch
- Vietnam Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Industry and Trade - Dak Lak Branch
- Vietnam Export Import Commercial Joint Stock Bank - Dak Lak Branch
- Viet Capital Bank - Dak Lak Branch
Currently, these banks are actively implementing the renovation and diversification of types of capital mobilization as well as applying advanced technologies in express delivery, inter-bank e-payment and international payment for safety and effectiveness.
2. Trade
Situated at the heart of the Central Highlands, Dak Lak has favorable conditions to exchange goods and co-operate with other areas. In recent years, the province has been assessed like the highest purchasing power in the region. The system of supermarkets, trade centers and markets in the province has basically met shopping needs for visitors and investors in Dak Lak.
The main export products of the province including coffee, rubber, cashew nut, pepper, cocoa, cassava, honey. Annual average output are 400,000 ton of coffee, 30,000 ton of rubber, 25,000 ton of cashew nut, 12,000 ton of pepper, 700 ton of cocoa, 450,000 ton of cassava, and over 5,000 ton of honey. 
Besides, Dak Lak is also strong in the crafting trades which product line can consist of furniture, handicrafts, souvenirs, brocade, etc.
Moreover, Dak Lak has achieved a significant improvement in exports in recent years. Goods produced by local enterprises have been exported to 59 countries and territories with various commodities. Annual export turnover of the province exceeds USD 650 million.
3. Tourism
Located in the heart of the Central Highlands, Dak Lak is a strategic location for socio-economic development, in which tourism has significant potential to become a leading economic sector.
 Due to the diversity of cultural characteristics of 47 ethnic minority communities and diversified tourism resources, Dak Lak is known by many domestic and foreign tourists as an attractive tourist destination with many sites that allow to exploit in the direction of combining landscape, ecology, environment and cultural tradition of many ethnic groups in the province, such as: Lak lake, Gia Long - Dray Sap waterfall cluster, Buon Don Eco-tourism area, Krong Kma waterfall, Dieu Thanh waterfall, Tien Nu waterfall, Chu Yang Sin National Park, and Ea So Natural Reserve.
The province has 23 historic revolutionary relic sites, 02 historic cultural relic sites, 13 architectural art relic sites, 8 archaeological relic sites, 71 scenic relic sites, and 25 landmarks. Besides, Dak Lak has 9 relic sites recognized as national relics by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism. Additionally, Dak Lak Provincial Museum has more than 8,000 historical and cultural objects.
Coming to Daklak is coming to a land of mysterious mountains and forest, rivers, lakes, majestic waterfalls, together with the cultural space of the gongs in the Central Highlands - the Proclamation of Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. Along with unique in culture, Dak Lak is famous with domestic and foreign tourists as the land of perpetual festivals as Elephant Racing Festival, Gong Festival, River Wharf Worshipping Ceremony, Grave-leaving Ceremony. Especially the Buon Ma Thuot Coffee Festival has been recognized by the Government as a national festival and held every two years in March.  

 

 

IV.Technical infrastructure
1.    Transport infrastructure
There are three forms of transport in Dak Lak province: Airways, waterways and roads. 
a) Roads:
The road transportation network  in Dak Lak is included:
-  National Highway network: The province has 576.5 km of National Highways (NH), including NH No. 26, No. 27, No. 29, No. 14, and No. 14C. There are 114 bridges on the NH with a length of 4,198.6 m.
+ NH No. 26: Starting from the center of Ninh Hoa town (Km1,420, National Highways No. 1, Khanh Hoa province), running through Duc Mi, Phuong Hoang mountain pass, M'Drak, Ea Kar; Krong Pac to Buon Ma Thuot city.
+ NH No. 27: Starting from Lam Ha and Dam Rong districts (Lam Dong province, crossing Lak, Cu Kuin to Buon Ma Thuot city.
+ NH No. 29: Starting from Song Hinh district (Phu Yen province), running through districts of Krong Nang, Ea Kar and Buon Ho town to Buon Ma Thuot city.
+ NH No. 14 is a part of the Ho Chi Minh Road, starting from Chu Se district (Gia Lai Province) to Buon Ma Thuot City, crossing districts of Ea H'Leo, Krong Buk, Buon Ho town, Cu M'gar, Buon Ma Thuot City, and leading to Cu Jut district (Dak Nong Province).
+ NH No.14C: Starting from Plei Kan town - Ngoc Hoi district - Kon Tum province. NH 14C is a National-level Road that links localities in the Central and Southern Highlands and runs along the border between Vietnam and Cambodia, and has its following chainage:
•    Source: at T-junction with National Highway No. 19 in Ia Nam commune, Duc Co district, Gia Lai provice.
•    Running across districts: Duc Co - Chu Prong - Ea Sup - Buon Don - Cu Jut - Dak Mil - Dak Song.
•    Destination: at T-junction with National Highway No. 14 in the Northern of Dak Song townlet, Dak Song district, Dak Nong provice.
- Provincial road network: The provincial roads comprise 13 lines with 457 km in length; the scale of level IV, mountainous and 02 lane roads. There are 78 bridges on the provincial roads with a total length of about 1,190 m.
- Urban roads: There are currently 751.07 km of urban roads concentrating in Buon Ma Thuot city, Buon Ho town and districts' townlets.
- District-level road network: The district roads have a length of 1403.82 km; the scale of level IV and V, mountainous roads. There are about 67 bridges on the district roads with a total length of about 937.8 m.
- Communal road network and village roads: There are 3,220.07 km of communal roads in the province. Currently, there are only 03 communes have no road to communal centers. The village road network is relatively developed with a total length of 4,079.32 km.
- Special-use roads of farms and forestry farms have a total length of about 675 km, mainly earth roads.
b) Waterways
There are 544 km of waterways created by the rivers of Srepok, Krong No and Krong Na rivers. Total number of inland waterway vehicles operating in some districts and city is 834 vehicles. The waterway system consists of four sand wharves of Quynh Ngoc, Giang Son, Lang Thai and Cu Pam. Passage boat wharfs crossings the rivers include: Buon Trap, Binh Hoa, Quang Dien, Krong No and Buon Jul.
c) Airways:
Buon Ma Thuot Airport is currently operating flights from Buon Ma Thuot to Ho Chi Minh City, Ha Noi, Da Nang, Vinh and vice versa. The runway has been upgraded since 2010, having a length of 3,000 m and a width of 45 m width with auxiliary equipments and airfield lighting system.
The new terminal has bee operated since December 2011 with a surface of 7,200 m2 and a capacity to serve one million passengers per year. During peak times, the terminal can accommodate two flight arrivals and two flight departures at a time with the Airbus A321 and its equivalent, serving 400 passengers per peak hour. 
The airline market of BuonMa Thuot has increased over 40%/year recently.
2.    Electricity
The electricity grid of Dak Lak has been improved both in quantity and quality, ensuring to be adequate for the provincial demand and production needs. Currently, Dak Lak has hydropower plants with large capacity connected to the national power grid such as Buon Kuop Hydropower Plant; Buon Tua Hydropower Plant; Serepok 3 Hydropower Plant, Serepok 4 Hydropower Plant, Krong H'Nang Hydropower Plant, Serepok 4A Hydropower Plant with total capacity of 794 MW. The power production in 2013 was 2,677 million KWh.
In addition to the mentioned hydropower plants, there are 14 small-scale hydropower plants that are connected to the 35.22 kV grid with a total capacity of 84.09 MW, producing 396 KWh in 2013.
The power network comprises transmission lines of 500kV, 220kV, 110kV, 35kV, 22kV, 10kV, and 0.4kV. The province has two 220kV transformer stations; nine 110kV stransformer stations; one 35kV transformer station; one 22 and 10/0.4kV transformer station; 407,640 single-phase meters and 28,312 three-phase meters.
3.    Communications
Recently, communication system of Dak Lak has developed strongly and widely over the province that creates favorable conditions for communicating in the province, in the country as well as all over the world.
The fixed telephone network has reached all 184 communes and wards, with a rate of 100%. The telephone and mobile phone systems cover all 15 districts, city, and town. The development of the telephone has increased rapidly every year. In 2013, total number of telephone subscriber is 1,577,976 (fixed phone: 96,840, moblile phone: 1,481,136), reaching the rate of 87.83 subscribers/100 people. Total number of internet subscribers is 42,524, reaching the rate of 13.38 sets/100 people. The rate of intenrnet user is 46.82%.