1. Industry & small-handicraft Industries

Because Hiep Hoa commune is oriented to develop ecotourism and the transport system is limited, its industry has not developed.

Small-handicraft industries: mainly manufacturing mechanical products, scrap, furniture, etc. There are 18 establishments with 39 employees in total. The total revenue of the whole industry in 2003 was VND1.412 billion, compared to the plan of VND1.4 billion, reaching 100 percent, including five establishments of mechanical industry, with 12 employees; food processing industry six establishments with 10 employees; home furniture industry one facility with two employees; cosmetic industry one facility with one employees; and others five establishments with 14 employees.

2. Agrio-forestry & Fishery

In the commune's economic development, agriculture still plays an important role in its economic structure, as follows:

+ Farming: mainly rice, fruit trees and vegetables, with the total annual cultivated area covering 354 ha, including 280 ha of rice with a yield of 1,100 tons, 74 ha of vegetables of all kinds, with an average yield of 750 tons. The total annual output of cultivation is VND3.9 billion. At present, 7.5 hectares of fruit trees have been renovated and newly planted, mainly pomelo and durian.

+ Livestock: mainly pigs and chickens. The total annual herd includes 25,820 heads (pig: 1,700 heads; chicken: 24,000 heads; cow: 120 heads). The total export value reaches VND3.465 billion a year. The commune has two large farms that raise industrial animals.

+ Aquatic products: The total area of ​​ponds and lakes used for aquaculture is 32.5 ha and 40 fish rafts - with a yield of fish meat of 140 tons, 2.2 million fish for breeding, 80 tons of raft fish. The total export value reaches 1.686 million a year.

+ Irrigation: At present, there are two pumping stations in the commune, which continue to irrigate and water about 40 ha while the remaining area is watered with oil-engine pumps by individual farmers.

In general, agricultural production during the year has faced with difficulties caused by complicated weather and prolonged drought, resulting in high investment costs for watering and irrigation, low economic efficiency and illegal land transfer, affecting the production, leading to a number of deserted land areas. The locality has focused on its leadership, along with the unions and organizations to foster propaganda and mobilize people to keep the agricultural production to achieve stable outcomes. In terms of fivestock raising, in the year, thanks to increased prices of products, farmers have profits and stable production results.

The crop restructuring process is still slow, especially the conversion of rice land to fruit trees, which has not been implemented, mainly renovating mixed gardens (2.5 ha), increasing the total area of ​​intensive farming gardens, reaching 7.5 hectares; vegetables and crops have developed but have not established any intensive vegetable gardens, with only two households producing safe vegetables with (one ha of cultivation). Cost efficiency between the production of safe vegetables and non-safe vegetables is not high, thus it does not attract farmers’ active involvement.

3. Trade and tourism services

Hiep Hoa Commune has one 3rd-class market with more than 60 trading households and over 140 business households, mainly serving local people. There are four limited liability companies with the total annual sales worth over VND12 billion. They mainly provide necessities and fresh goods, including a business model combining catering, fishing and entertainment with four effciently operating businesses.

In general, commercce and services do not have any opportunity to grow at full potential due to the locals’ great traditional reliance on agriculture; the potential for ecotourism has not been fully exploited, especially infrastructure for tourism such motels, gathering points; support services ... Capitalizing on the riverbank landscape tends to develop a business; the recreational fishing services combined with catering business have been increasingly replicated effectively.

TABLE OF HIEP HOA COMMUNE’S ECONOMIC STRUCTURE IN 2003

 4. Culture, Sports, Education and Health

+ Culture: In 2003 the Culture and Sports sector propagated through various forms of information on Radio, installing banners, posters to popularize the Party's guilines and policies and State’s laws, including the Lunar New Year; the Law on Military Obligation, Women's Day on March 8; Youth Union founding celebration on March 26; Vietnam Sports Day on March 27; April 30; May 1; and May 19, realizing the slogans of the Cell Party Congress and local movements launched by the locality. In addition, the radio relaying every morning helps the locals get updates on the country, the province and the city.

In collaboration with the Dong Nai Center for Culture and Sports, the commune organized the 1st Southern Music Festival in 2003 from June 15–17, 2003 at Nguyen Huu Canh Shrine.

In the year it has implemented the campaign to unite to build cultured life in residential areas. The Steering Committee of the commune held a check to review the standards achieved by three hamlets. As a result, Nhi Hoa hamlet has retained its cultural hamlet title, Nhat Hoa hamlet has been recognized as cultured one and Tam Hoa Hamlet strives to meet those standards by the end of the year.

+ Education: Educational universalization has been consolidated and reinforced, preventing illiteracy and universalizing education, thereby making plans and gathering statistics for the age group of 15 to 21 and conducting advocacy for 22 students to attend classes. At the same time, the locality has made a proposal to the city to check and recognize its high-school universalization results in 2003, based on the fact that the test shows that it has met the standards for high-school universalization. Up to now has maintained night classes with 44 students. Concurrently, the schools have coordinated with the Youth Union to launch the summer vacation with 400 students participating.

 The commune developed the project and launched the Community Learning Center in the locality, with about 360 local people attending. Its aim is to offer various learning opportunities to improve the quality of people’s life, create conditions for people’s continous learning, serve the cause of socioeconomic development and contribute to building a learning society in the locality. Initially, three training courses on the Population Ordinance were conducted, guiding parents to choose 1st grade textbooks, practicing nutritional porridge cooking for pregnant mothers and children, and also disseminating 4,000 questionnaires on people’s learning needs to help the center open classes meeting the people's demands.

During the year, Hiep Hoa Primary School was checked and recognized to meet national standards by the city and province. The Ministry of Education is currently proposing a recognition decision.

The Study Encouragement Association held a meeting of the Executive Board to approve the decision recognizing the Executive Board for the 2002-2007 term and publicize its finance after rewarding and scholarship handover, and at the same time considering the proposal of the city to grant four scholarships and nine ones for the 2nd semester of the 2003-2004 school year worth VND8.05 million (25 gifts). At the same time, it rewarded eigth good teachers with VND100,000 each and 26 for pupils in disadvantaged classes, primary and secondary schools with excellent student tittles in the 2002-2003 school yeargraduation exams. Primary and junior high school students receive VND 100,000 and 20 notebooks. Each student in a loving class receives VND 50,000 and 10 notebooks. Total amount 4,650,000 VND.

The schools have successfully organized the opening of the 2003-2004 school year, the results are as follows: The kindergarten has four classes of 80 children. The Primary School has 23 classes of 800 students. The Secondary School 16 classes 645 students.

+ Health: The Health Industry carries out vaccination to prevent six diseases for children, reaching 98 percent on average. Every month, it provides medical examination and treatment for local people with an average of 400 visits a month. In addition, the sector also cooperates with related agencies to launch an epidemic prevention and sanitation campaign, checking food hygiene in schools, restaurants, and markets.

Carrying out the first phase of the family planning campaign in 2003 with various forms, with the number of couples participating in contraception reaching 77 percent of the target population. In addition, along with with organizations and unions it organizes four sessions of nutritious food processing for 900 children and 200 pregnant mothers. The percentage of malnourished children is 10 percent, down by 0.1 percent compared to the set target.

It mobilizes people to use clean water to ensure health, participate in keeping environmental sanitation, preventing littering, dredging drainage ditches to prevent stagnation and practicing good hygiene in animal husbandry. Currently the health station has one doctor; three physicans; one nurse and one midwife.

5. Implementation of public works:

+ Regarding the rural transport socialization: The total expenditure is VND503.7 million compared to the planned VND200 million reaching 251 percent, of which, the State Treasury paid VND38,651,000 and the local donation was VND465,049,000, including following works:

The commune mobilizes people to adopting the policy of rural transport socialization, striving for 2004 to collect the traffic socialization funds to invest in constructing works in the commune, and mobilizes people to continue repairing roads in the hamlets and make them more beautiful and more spacious. It coordinates with the city to build and upgrade village road 11, bridges and Binh Quan dam sluice under the approved Ecotourism Planning Project. It newly constructes 0.8 km-long Binh Xuong road and concretizes Thanh Hung group road in hamlet 3, Nhi Hoa.

+ Capital construction: During the year, in collaboration with the city's relevant departments, the construction was completed and put into use in Hiep Hoa Secondary School in the school year 2003-2004, with a budget of over VND7 billion funded by the provincial Department of Education and the communal Military Corps Office. It started the construction of Hiep Hoa Kindergarten, costing more than VND2 billion and Hiep Hoa Health Station, which was completed in early 2004, along with with the construction of Nhi Hoa hamlet office and submitting the construction site proposal to build the remaining two offices of Nhat Hoa and Tam Hoa hamlets in 2004. It coordinated with the City Project Management Board to supplement the construction of Hiep Hoa market, currently seeking for investment partners.​