Thursday, October 25, 2018, 07:04 (GMT+7)
Dong Nai Province’s measures to build the self-defence forces in FDI enterprises

Over the past years, in the area of Dong Nai province, party committees and authorities at all levels have devoted due attention to building the self-defence forces in foreign direct investment (FDI) enterprises. However, this is a new task with mechanisms of special management which should continue to be thoroughly studied in both theory and practice terms.

Dong Nai is one of the first provinces in the Southeast of Vietnam which have pursued the economic development direction of industrialization and modernization. So far, the province has had 31 industrial zones and clusters with 11,000 enterprises, including over 2,800 FDI enterprises from 42 countries and territories. With the investment worth over 21 billion USD, those enterprises have attracted more than 750,000 workers and experts from all over the country and other countries. That has laid important foundation for the province’s socio-economic development and enhanced integration, thereby contributing to accelerating the country’s industrialization and modernization and increasing the province’s budget. However, it has posed great challenges to social welfare, political security, and social order and safety in the area. At the same time, it is also the opportunity for the hostile forces to enhance their sabotage via the “peaceful evolution” strategy and conversion and incite worker to join strikes and demonstrations or even plunder property of enterprises, impacting Vietnam’s investment environment. Thus, the province has determined that the organization and building of the militia and self-defence forces in industrial zones and clusters in general, the self-defence forces in FDI enterprises in particular to contribute to maintaining political security and social order in the area and protecting enterprises’ property is an objective, urgent matter. This is also the development and concretization of the Party’s guidelines and the State’s policies on combining economic development with defence and security.

However, the building of self-defence forces in this type of enterprise is still a new matter, and legal documents, particularly the regulations on the mechanism for leadership, direction, organization and operation have yet to be sufficient. Meanwhile, several businesses have yet to achieve a sense of unity in building their self-defence forces due to concerns over the impact on their production, the increase in cost, and the militarization of enterprise. Therefore, studying measures to build the self-defence forces in FDI enterprises nationwide in general, those in the province’s area in particular in the context of wide and deep international integration is a matter of importance to each locality and the whole country. In this article, we would like to introduce initial measures to build the self-defence forces in FDI enterprises in Dong Nai province’s area.

First, promoting the role in advising the province’s Party Committee and People’s Committee on issuing documents to lead and direct the organization of the self-defence forces in FDI enterprises. This is a top solution which decides the quality and effectiveness of this work. The reason is that these enterprises operate under the Law on Enterprises; however, the mechanism for management and the mode of operation are under the intent of foreign economic organizations. Thus, to well perform this task, it is essential that military offices at all levels must grasp higher echelons’ resolutions, directives and legal documents on the work of militia and self-defence forces, particularly the Law on Militia and Self-Defence Forces, the Government’s Decree 98/2014/NĐ-CP, dated October 24th 2014, on “Regulations on establishing political organizations and socio-political organizations in enterprises from all economic sectors”, and the situation in the area to counsel local party committees and authorities to promulgate the system of legal documents as the basis for the uniform and effective implementation. Over the past time, receiving the counselling from the Provincial Military Command (PMC), the Provincial Party Executive Committee has issued the Dispatch 7058-CV/TU on the accelerated building of militia key positions in the area of industrial zones and the self-defence forces in enterprises, while the Provincial People’s Committee has released the document to lead the building of militia and self-defence platoons in industrial zones and self-defence forces in FDI enterprises. Those have created the legal corridor for organizations and sectors’ close implementation in accordance with the Law on Enterprises and the Law on Investment. Based on the condition of each locality, military offices at all levels have promoted the core role in cooperating with competent offices in mobilizing the strength of the whole political system to build the self-defence forces in FDI enterprises according to the stated plan. At the same time, they have strengthened the work of review and inspection and opportunely grasped difficulties to propose measures to local party committees and authorities.

Second, actively, persistently persuading FDI enterprises in the area to well conduct the work of building the self-defence forces. To achieve the effectiveness in the propagation work, the PMC has cooperated with relevant offices, particularly the Province’s Confederation of Labour, Department of Planning and Investment, and Board of Industrial Zone Management in carrying out surveys on FDI enterprises in the area. At the same time, it has conducted an opinion poll on the establishment of the self-defence forces in an objective manner, expressing the respect for enterprises’ right to determination. Among 781 FDI enterprises surveyed, 481 of them agreed (nearly 62%) while 148 of them disagreed (nearly 19%). In addition to conducting surveys, military offices have cooperated with competent offices to directly hold dialogues with the associations of foreign enterprises (Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, etc.) to clearly explain to them that the establishment of self-defence forces in enterprises is the observance of Vietnam’s law and aimed at protecting their property and workers, stressing that the self-defence forces play the core role in fire and explosive prevention and control as well as in settlement of the situation when necessary. At the same time, they have shown the effectiveness in establishment of self-defence forces in specific enterprises in order to render other enterprises fully aware of the benefits of guaranteed security and safety for production and business, especially when incidents occur. As a result, a sense of unity in the establishment of self-defence forces in FDI enterprises has been created. By August 2018, Dong Nai has founded 36 self-defence units in FDI enterprises, including 3 party organization-free enterprises. However, these are only initial results; therefore, this matter should continue to be further studied and developed.

Third, the self-defence forces must be organized and built step by step in accordance with each enterprise’s condition. Under the province’s guidelines, in July 2014, the PMC issued the Plan to build the self-defence forces in FDI enterprises. According to this Plan, the province has focused on the enterprises having party organizations and those located in the key areas with a large number of workers. As for party organization-free ones, the province has both gradually taken steps and drawn lessons while flexibly applying higher echelons’ guiding documents to the process. In reality, for the sake of uniform, effective operation of the self-defence forces, it is essential that enterprises create a favourable condition for the self-defence forces. Perceiving that, the PMC has directed the Military Command of Trang Bom district to develop the Regulations on Coordination with Enterprises in order to provide the model for the implementation in the whole area. The Regulations have stipulated the mechanisms for leadership, command, operation and coordination under the principle of the Party’s leadership, the mechanism of State’s management and the State’s law. It should be noted that the Regulations have harmoniously combined the self-defence cadres and soldiers’ obligations and benefits with workers’ obligations and benefits, ensuring that the self-defence units both fulfil the military-defence tasks and well implement plans for production and business. The Regulations have helped enterprises deal with the issues on training duration and content, mechanism for operation and contribution, which has received the support of enterprises and served as a new approach for the province and the Military Region 7 to multiply across the area.

Fourth, successfully carrying out the training work and improving the quality of operation of the self-defence forces in each enterprise. This is the central task aimed at enhancing the self-defence forces’ synergy and capability to fulfil the assigned mission. However, the training work will certainly impact on the plan for production and business in enterprises. To settle this issue, the province has commanded district-level military commands to organize training courses under the program. The time for training must be flexible and accepted by enterprises to avoid impacting on their production and business. Training content must be comprehensive but focalized and made relevant to the Party’s guidelines and the State’s policy on military-defence tasks, with emphasis placed on hostile forces’ schemes and artifices, methods to disperse the crowd, skills in employing the supporting tools, etc., thereby raising the awareness of the task and building basic tactical skills in accordance with cadres and soldiers’ daily work. Besides, district-level military commands have proactively given instructions to enterprises on formulating plans for patrol and guard as well as projects for protection. The operation of self-defence units have enabled military offices and enterprises to grasp, correctly anticipate, and opportunely deal with the situation, particularly the complex situation in each enterprise and prevent it from being spread and transformed into a “flashpoint”.

Building the self-defence forces in FDI enterprises is a new, important, urgent matter for the local military-defence work. To meet the constant development of reality, we should continue to study and complete mechanisms and policies, draw lessons, and seek new, effective approaches to the building of the self-defence forces in FDI enterprises.

Sr. Col. To Thanh Liem, Deputy Commander of the PMC

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