Mong Cai City of Quang Ninh Province is the border area located in the Northeastern region of the country. The city holds a strategic position in terms of economics, politics, defence, security and foreign affairs, and at the same time, it is an important trade gateway between Vietnam and China, a direct bridge between the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and Northeast Asian countries. Its position, coupled with the Party and State's policies on integration and socio-economic development, has made the city a highly attractive area for domestic and foreign investors. Trade, tourism and service activities have become extremely exciting, especially since the Van Don - Mong Cai Expressway was put into operation. However, along with the advantages and potentials for development, the City faces many difficulties, challenges and risks of instability due to the impact of natural disasters and diseases; changes in the border trade policy of friendly country; and complications in smuggling activities, trade fraud, illegal immigration, cross-border crimes, etc. In order to make the most of its advangtages and overcome challenges, the City Party Committee and People's Committee have developed and implemented many resolutions, programmes and plans to lead and direct its socio-economic development, in which, improving the quality of defence and security education is identified as a breakthrough and a key task.

First of all, the City strengthens the leadership and direction of party committees and authorities; promotes the core role of military agencies at all levels in advising and implementing the tasks of defence and security education. On the basis of deeply understanding Directive No. 12-CT/TW, dated 3rd May, 2007 of the Politburo on strengthening the Party's leadership over defence and security education in the new situation, Law on National Defence and Security Education, together with the directives and guiding documents of higher echelons, every year, the City Party Committee and People's Committee issue leadership and direction documents to implement this important work in a serious, synchronous and unified manner. It regularly consolidates and perfects the Councils for National Defence and Security Education at all levels to ensure sufficient quantity, high quality, appropriate composition and structure; supplements and completes operational regulations in accordance with local realities, especially in border communes, wards, islands and key areas of defence and security. In particular, implementing the Resolution of the 24th Party Congress of the City, Mong Cai strives to complete defence and security training for 100% of subjects in the first half of the term. To that end, the City directs its Military Command to coordinate with departments, branches and localities to grasp the quantity and classify the quality of subjects of training, develop and announce plans and targets of training early for units to implement. Moreover, it strengthens inspection and examination according to decentralised authority. In order to involve the entire political system, the City decides that the results of defence and security education are considered as a criterion to evaluate the leadership and management capacity of party committees, party organisations, authorities and presiding officers at all levels.

Integrating defence and security knowledge into political education for new party members - an effective way of defence and security education of the city

In addition, the city promotes innovation in the content, form and methods of conducting defence and security education to suit each subject and locality. Cadres and party members are both subjects of training and the ones who lead, direct, and conduct defence and security work according to their functions and areas of responsibility. Therefore, to achieve the set targets and requirements, along with sending officers of tier-2 and tier-3 subjects to defence and security courses held by superior levels, the City also opens training classes for tier-4 subjects at its Political Training Centre. At the same time, it directs the Councils for National Defence and Security Education at all levels to grasp the area and proactively expand training subjects. Implementing the direction of the People's Committee and the Council for National Defence and Security Education of Quang Ninh province, the City has also conducted education for heads of border households, religious dignitaries, owners of boarding houses, boat owners, and business owners with positive results. Moreover, it requires that new issues relating to the construction and defence of the Fatherland be researched, updated and included in the programmes of training, especially the topics: socio-economic development associated with strengthening national defence, security and foreign affairs in the new situation; ethnic and religious issues; national defence struggle, the protection of border,  political security, order and social safety in the area. Besides concentrated education, the City also integrates training into political activities, implementation conference of civil - political - party work, training of sectors, and defence exercises, etc. Thanks to the right orientation and high determination, to date, the City has basically completed the defence and security education for subjects with good quality and high efficiency, contributing to enhancing the capacity of the cadres and the authority, meeting both immediate and long-term mission requirements.

As for students, the City requests its Military Command to coordinate with the Department of Education and Training to direct educational establishments in the area to strengthen the teaching staff of the defence and security education subject; have investments to upgrade equipment and facilities for teaching and learning and measures to improve the quality of this subject. The schools are also required to actively innovate educational forms and methods in the direction of increasing practical activities associated with specific characteristics of each region for students. In addition, the City also directs the schools to coordinate with the Border Guard posts to develop plans and conduct "Border lessons" and "People's heart and mind border mark lessons" right at the border landmarks. Thereby, teachers and students can experience the tasks of the Border Guards, and enrich their knowledge and laws about the country’s borders and territorial sovereignty, about the role of the people in assisting the Border Guards in protecting the sovereignty of border, sea and island. As a result, the young’s patriotism and responsibility for protecting the country’s sovereignty and security are significantly enhanced.

Implementing the Project of developing Mong Cai into a Class-I city by 2030, in recent years, the City has promoted land clearance to attract investment and build key projects, ... hence facing a lot of difficulties and complications. In order to turn the City's guidelines and policies into awareness and voluntary action of each citizen, it has focused on improving the quality of propaganda and dissemination of defence and security knowledge to the entire population. Promoting its strength as a cultural and tourist city, it directs the Council for National Defence and Security Education to coordinate with the City Propaganda Commission, Cultural and Sports Centre and functional agencies to build plans, select content, and conduct extensive propaganda for the people with diverse forms, suitable to local characteristics. In particular, propaganda is promoted in traditional festivals and tourist activities which attract large numbers of tourists; strengthened through direct forms and leaflets distributed in celebrations, traditional days, military enlistment days, and defensive area exercises. Propaganda has also been carried out in community meetings, activities of the Fatherland Front Committee and mass organisations, artistic, cultural, and sports events. Thanks to these measures, positive changes have been seen in people's awareness towards this work, creating consensus and earning the support of the people for land clearance and the deployment of key economic, military, defence and security projects in the locality. The City always completes 100% of its targets for recruitment annually. All new recruits are selected with good morality and physical strength. Training for the standing forces, militia and self-defence forces, the reserve force, and flood and storm response drills - search and rescue, defensive combat drills, etc. all meet the requirements. The situations of political security, social order and safety are maintained stably.

Promoting those achieved results, in the coming time, Mong Cai City will continue to promote innovation and further improve the quality of defence and security education, creating high consensus and agreement between the Party Committee, authorities and the people in building and protecting the locality, building an increasingly solid “people's heart and mind posture”; maintaining political security, social order and safety, creating a solid driving force for the city to continue to make breakthroughs and grow increasingly rich, beautiful, civilised, and be worthy of its position.

HO QUANG HUY, Deputy Secretary of the City Party Committee, Chairman of the City People's Committee