Ha Quang is a mountainous district, sharing a 61.7-km-long border with Guangxi province (China), holding a position of importance to the province of Cao Bang and Military Region 1’s defence and security. Over the past years, the District’s Party Committee and People’s Committee have always focused their leadership and direction on effectively performing the defence-military mission. Consequently, the awareness and responsibility of cadres, party members, and all people towards the Homeland construction and defence have been positively changed. The all-people national defence and the defensive zone’s potential and posture within the district have been cemented. The district’s armed forces have been always strong politically. They have achieved many reforms training and combat readiness while their synergy and combat strength have been raised. They have always played the core role in defending the national border sovereignty and maintained political security and social safety in all situations. Moreover, a favourable condition has been created to foster economic, cultural and social development and improve the people’s mental and material life in the area.

The 70th anniversary of the traditional day of the district’s armed forces

To obtain those achievements, the District’s Party Committee has taken measures synchronously to lead and direct its defence-military mission, with a focus on the following.

The District’s Party Committee has required the all-level party committees and authorities to enhance their direction and leadership over this important task. On a yearly basis, party committees at all levels grasp higher echelons’ directives and resolutions on the defence-military work, particularly the Resolutions of the Party Central Committee’s 8^th Plenums (9^th and 11^th tenure) on the Strategy for Homeland protection in the new situation, the Politburo’s Resolution 28-NQ/TW, the Government’s Decree 02/2016/NĐ-CP on amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Decree 152/2007/NĐ-CP on the defensive zone. In the coming time, the District’s Party Committee will direct all-level party committees and authorities to strictly implement the Government’s Decree 21/2019/NĐ-CP, dated February 22^nd 2019, on the defensive zones. Promoting the advisory role of sectors, particularly the District Military Command and its Party Committee, the District’s Party Committee and People’s Committee have issued directives, resolutions, plans and projects to exercise the uniformed leadership over the defence-military work. In this regard, significance has been attached to raising the efficiency and effectiveness of party committees’ leadership and authorities’ management and operation at all levels towards the defence-military work; to frequently reviewing, supplementing, and building documents on this task in a feasible manner. In the process, all-level party committees and authorities have heightened the responsibility of organizations, encouraged all resources to build strong all-people national defence, and proactively dealt with the hostile forces’ plots and acts of sabotage. Due attention has been paid to fighting against the insufficient awareness of the situation and task as well as the risk of the “peaceful evolution” strategy and the issues on ethnicity and religion.

Importance has been attached to stepping up the work of defence and security education for all objects and people. The District’s Party Committee has directed offices, units, and localities to grasp and strictly execute the 10^th Politburo’s Directives 62-CT/TW and 12-CT/TW as well as the Government’s Decrees on the defence-security work and put this work in order. In the process, focuses have been placed on renewing the contents, forms and methods of education in line with each group of learners, each area’s particularities, and the ethnic minority people’s intellectual level. The contents of education have been centred on raising the awareness and responsibility of cadres, party members, and the people towards the defence-security and Homeland protection task and the Party and State’s policies on ethnicity and religion. Defence-security education has been diversified and included in training courses, talks at grass-roots level, mass media programs, working groups’ operations, and the ethnic minority people’s festivals. Moreover, the district has frequently consolidated the Council for Defence and Security Education and put the Council’s operation in order effectively. Between 2008 and 2018, the district has provided defence-security education for 3,350 cadres and people of the groups 4 and 5, for 515 cadres of the group 3, and for 7,468 students from 3 high schools. To provide defence-security education for all people, the district has stepped up propagation via mass media and a contingent of speakers and communicators and included propagation in the programs of unions in order to make all people clearly understand the hostile forces’ plots and acts of sabotage, the local people and armed forces’ heroic tradition, and each citizen’s responsibility for today’s defence-security task. By means of various measures, the work of defence-security education in the area has witnessed a positive change and contributed to raising cadres, party members, and all people’s awareness and responsibility towards the Homeland construction and protection.

Leadership over the building of a solid defensive zone represents a central task of the defence-security work. To do so, the District’s Party Committee issued the Action Program for the 10^th Politburo’s Resolution and the Government’s Decrees on building the defensive zones with synchronous measures. It has promoted the role of the District Military Command in cooperating with sectors in counselling and performing this task. Grasping the Party’s viewpoint on “boosting economic development as the centre, consolidating defence and security as the main, routine task”, the District’s Party Committee has directed sectors to closely combine socio-economic development with defence-security consolidation and the building of the defensive zone’s potential and posture in localities’ socio-economic development plans in each stage, particularly in the plans for defence mobilization and support in the first year of the war (if occurred) in accordance with higher echelons’ projects and the district’s condition. At the same time, it has made more investments in the projects for telecoms and rural traffic system and prioritized the projects for socio-economic development in the areas in extreme difficulty in order to develop the infrastructure, ensure the synchronous, uniformed development, improve the people’s life, and meet the demand for the defence-security task. The combat bases, logistics-technical bases, and plans for building, mobilizing, storing, and receiving forces, materials, and equipment for the local armed forces’ long-term combat operations have been carefully prepared and readily put to use.

To complete the mechanisms and regulations for the defensive zone’s operation and improve the all-level party committees and authorities’ capability in leadership, direction and operation as well as the forces’ capacity to deal with the defence-security situations, the district has always paid due attention to leading the organization of defensive zone exercises and commune-level defensive exercises. The contents and forms of exercises have been renewed and relevant to the area with the close coordination between the Military, Public Security, and Border Guard as well as the close combination of defensive combat and natural disaster prevention and control and search and rescue. Between 2008 and 2018, the district organized the exercises under the regulations. In 2018 alone, it held the defensive exercises in the communes of Cai Vien, Van Anh, and Noi Thon successfully and safely, which contributed to enhancing the party committees and authorities’ leadership and management as well as the armed forces’ combat readiness and operational capacity.

The district has attached great value to building and making strong local armed forces and military offices capable of the core role in the defence-security task. Adhering to higher echelons’ regulations and guidance, the District’s Party Committee and People’s Committee have consolidated the organizational structure of the armed forces and made them “compact and strong” in accordance with each force’s function and task, while building pure, strong military party cells and organizations. Due attention has been paid to managing, educating, and training cadres and party members, particularly those who are ethnic minority people. As a result, 100% of cadres and party members within the District’s Party Organization have political zeal and pure morality and show no signs of degradation in political ideology, ethics and lifestyle as well as “self-evolution” and “self-transformation”. The armed forces have actively improved the quality of training, stepped up the work of coordination, strictly maintained the order for combat readiness, and built, supplemented, and completed the system of combat documents and plans for the states of national defence, natural prevention and control, search and rescue.

In addition, the district has focused on building the “revolutionary, regular, elite, gradually modern” active force, the “strong, qualitative” reserve force, and the “powerful, extensive” militia and self-defence force with the proper structure and high quality. Under the leadership of the District’s Party Committee, all-level party committees and authorities and the District Military Command have well performed the work of registering, managing, selecting and initiating citizens into the militia and self-defence force closely under the motto “the people know, the people discuss, the people elect, and the people take care of”, paid responsibility allowances under the regulations, and combined military recruitment with human resources preparation for localities. In 2018, 34 citizens of the district passed the military university entrance examination while the district fulfilled the target of military conscription.

Fully aware of the importance of the defence-military work, the Party Committee of Ha Quang district, Cao Bang province will continue proposing the measures to lead and direct the authorities and people to better perform this work so as to defend the North’s frontier area.

Be Dang Khoa, Member of the Provincial Party Committee

Secretary of the District’s Party Committee