The district of Phu Thien (Gia Lai province) was founded on March 30^th, 2007, split from the former district of Ayun Pa, with a total area of over 505 km² and 10 administrative units (2 communes in special difficulty). Ethnic minority people account for nearly 60% of its population. Over the years, the district has witnessed sustainable economic growth. The people’s mental and material life has been considerably improved. However, taking advantage of historical issues, the hostile forces have been inciting separatism and inducing a section of people to follow evil religions and illegally cross the border, while gathering forces and building an underground governmental structure for demonstrations and political upheavals. Against that backdrop, the District Party Committee, People’s Council, and People’s Committee have focused their leadership and direction on building the all-people national defence via various synchronous and practical measures.

First of all, the district has enhanced the work of propagation and education to raise its cadres, party members and citizens’ awareness and responsibility for the building of the all-people national defence. This work has been carried out in a comprehensive but focalised way. Significance has been attached to unmasking the hostile forces’ plots and artifices of making use of the issues on ethnicity, religion, democracy and human rights to incite citizens to illegally cross the border. Emphasis has been placed on conducting propagation for village patriarchs, persons with great prestige, religious locals, and ethnic minority young people. Forms and methods of propagation have been flexibly applied. Importance has been attached to carrying out direct propagation and building typical examples as ethnic minority citizens. Authorities and sectors have maintained dialogues with the people to opportunely handle petitions and complaints under law. The district has provided sufficient information for its citizens, orientated their ideology, educated them on patriotism, raised their revolutionary vigilance, and aroused their national pride. It has improved the quality of defence and security education for all cadres and locals, while organising training courses for rapporteurs of defence and security education at grass-roots level. Doing so has enabled the district to raise its cadres, party members, and citizens’ awareness and create a consensus amongst them on the building of the all-people national defence.

The district has focused all resources on enhancing the building of all-people national defence potential and combining socio-economic development with military-defence potential consolidation. Due attention has been paid to building a strong political system from district to grass-roots level under the Prime Minister’s Directive 36/2005/CT-TTg, dated October 17^th, 2005 on building strong political bases to meet the requirements of defence-security task in the new situation. Importance has been attached to strengthening party committees and organisations’ leadership capacity and their core role in leading the task performance. At the same time, the district has directed its offices and sectors to review and supplement long-term master plans and give instructions to their inferiors, with a view to promoting the synergy in the building of the all-people national defence.

The close-knit bond between the Military and the people

Following the District Party Committee’s viewpoints on socio-economic development, the District People’s Committee has executed many programmes and plans in accordance with local practical conditions. Exploiting its strengths, the district has focused on changing its economic structure, with an increase in the proportion of industry and services and a gradual decrease in the share of agriculture and forestry. Industry, handicraft, services and trade have basically met the people’s needs and acted as an incentive for other sectors’ production. Since the inception of Ayun Ha reservoir, the district has taken various measures to exploit its land for comprehensive, sustainable agricultural development. In this regard, emphasis has been placed on high-quality agricultural production in the communes of Ayun Ha, Ia Sol, Ia Ake, Ia Yeng, and Chu A Thai. Besides, the district has effectively implemented the model of “larges-scale one-variety rice and sugar cane paddies” and built the brand name of “Phu Thien rice” to make contributions to increasing the crop husbandry revenue by 6% per annum, while developing animal husbandry farms and enterprises.

Moreover, the district has stepped up trade promotion and attracted investments in service-tourism projects, such as the Ayun Ha reservoir supermarket and resort and the cultural relic site of Plei Oi (King of Fire) in line with traditional festivals of the Jrai and Bahnar peoples. Due regard has been paid to rather synchronous infrastructural development, especially the inter-commune and inter-district traffic system to serve the defence-security task. Up to now, 10 out of 10 communes and townships of the district have built roads to their centre, while key roads, such as the road connecting the National Highway No.25 with the Provincial Route No.666, the inter-district road from Chu A Thai Road to Ia Pa district, and the section from the National Highway No.25  in the commune of Ia Sol to the communes of Ia Yeng and Ia Maron and the district of Ia Pa. As a result, the district’ average production value has reached over 12%, while the average per capita income has been 18 million VND per annum. The revenues of agriculture, forestry, and aquaculture have increased by 6.5%, industry and construction have risen by over 16.5%, and services and trade have climbed by 16.5% to meet local needs and ensure reserves for the defence-security task. The programmes and projects on sustainable poverty reduction have been effectively implemented, with a 15% decrease in poor households according to the multi-dimensional poverty criteria. Due regard has been paid to developing education and health and building new civilised, cultural lifestyle. The national target programme on new-style countryside construction has been realised via different resources. Up to now, many communes of the district have witnessed positive changes in their appearance and their citizens’ life has been considerably improved.

Great value has been attached to using the all-people synergy to build the all-people national defence with the local armed forces playing a core role. All-level party committees and authorities have concentrated on building a firm “posture of people’s hearts and minds,” closely combining socio-economic development with defence-security consolidation, maintaining social stability, and proactively dealing with situations. Communes and townships have promoted the on-the-spot strength to settle defence-security situations and proactively, opportunely detected and thwarted the hostile forces’ “peaceful evolution” strategy to maintain political security and social order and safety.

While completing its defensive zone’s posture, the district has focused on raising the local armed forces’ synergy. The District Party Committee Standing Board has closely exercised its leadership over the distribution of investments in training, combat readiness, and the building of the armed forces. Military commands of communes, townships, and offices have been consolidated quantitatively under the Prime Minister’s Decree 159/2005/NĐ-CP, dated December 27^th, 2005 on classifying commune-level administrative units. In the past 10 years, the district has deployed 38 cadres for further education. Those cadres after graduation have been employed in accordance with the district’s practical condition and units’ demand. Most of them have promoted a sense of responsibility and their vanguard role in performing their task.

Besides, to enhance leadership over the performance of the military-defence task, the district has improved the quality of commune-level military party cells under the 10^th Central Organising Commission’s Guidance 35-HD/BTCTW, dated October 15^th, 2009. Currently, all communes and townships of the district have founded military party cells. Due attention has been paid to initiating members of the militia and self-defence force and the reserve into the Party. On a yearly basis, communes and townships initiate at least one new member into the Party. As a result, 24.5% of the militia and self-defence force’s members are now Party members. The synergy and combativeness of the reserve force and the militia and self-defence have been increased. Moreover, consideration has been given to initiating new members and those who had fulfilled their military service into the militia and self-defence force and the reserve force within communes and townships. Consequently, all reserve units have been staffed sufficiently. At the same time, the district has organised refresher courses on military mobilisation for cadres of commune-level military commands and closely inspected the development and completion of plans and documents on mobilising the reserve force at all levels. Coordination between localities and units has been maintained to build, train, and inspect the reserve force and the militia and self-defence force. Significance has been attached to registering and closely managing reservists and technical means to ensure rapid mobilisation and the quality of means. As a result, on an annual basis, more than 90% of reservists take part in training courses and mobilisation readiness inspections.

Due regard has been paid to supplementing and perfecting plans and documents on defence, terrorism and riot prevention and combat, people’s air defence, and civil defence from district to commune levels. Doing so has provided the district with a solid foundation to construct rear, logistics, and technical bases appropriate to its potential and direct its military and public security offices to enhance coordination under the Government’s Decree 03/2019/NĐ-CP, dated September 5^th, 2019 on cooperation between the Ministry of Public Security and the Ministry of National Defence in protecting national security, maintaining social order and safety, and performing the defence task. The public security force has promoted its core role in ensuring security and order, while synchronously adopting measures to encourage the masses to protect national security, build a firm posture of people’s security, control social evils and traffic accidents, and maintain political stability and social order and safety within the district.

In spite of a lot of difficulties and challenges, with their dynamism, creativity, and aspiration for development, the military and people of Phu Thien will always devote effort to making the all-people national defence increasingly strong.

TRINH VAN SANG, Deputy Secretary of the District Party Committee

Chairman of the District People’s Committee