The Southeast plays a very important role in Vietnam’s economic development. Despite a high concentration of social scientists in the Southeast region, there remains a paradox that the Southeast culture has not been sufficiently researched into. Applying the method of cultural zoning based on the changes of the three dimensions Subject – Space - Time developed by the author, the article concludes that the Southeast is a separate cultural zone besides the Southwest and lists some typical characteristics of the Southeast in terms of cultural elements (focusing on the organizational culture) and the system of cultural personality characteristics of Vietnamese people in the Southeast. An analysis of the Human Development Index (HDI) of the Southeast shows that this development is unbalanced and unsustainable. To achieve balance and sustainability, more investment must be made on the culture and the people; community-village type behaviors should be replaced by community-society type behaviors; and the urban way of living, the urban culture and good urban citizen character should be promoed while limiting the rural/agricultural lifestyle and characteristics.

In 2014, Binh Duong has 2.885 the Khmer people, being the second largest ethnic minority compared to the Hoa people. They have contributed to the multi-ethnic culture of Binh Duong. Hundreds of works on the Khmer in the Mekong Delta considered their culture as a typical of Theravada Buddhist culture in Vietnam but this proposition is not suitable for the Khmer community in An Binh, Phu giao district who is this object of this study. By qualitative data sources from in-depth interviews, participant observations and approach to the historical particularism, this study documented the cultural characteristics of the Khmer in An Binh and analyzed the factors that make culture of the Khmer in An Binh different from the culture of the Khmer in the Mekong Delta. Natural conditions and socio-historical context make the cultural practices of the Khmer in An Binh more similar to the culture of the ethnic groups in the Central Highlands than the Khmer culture in the Mekong delta, especially, customs and folk beliefs.