As the province holds a position of strategic importance to defence and security of the North Central Coast and the entire country, all-level party committees and authorities across Quang Binh have always considered the building of a solid all-people border defence and a firm “posture of people’s hearts and minds” as a crucial task aimed facilitating the province’s socio-economic development and ensuring the people’s peaceful life.

Quang Binh province has both land and sea borders, long, narrow terrain, and many key transport routes of the country. Over the years, thanks to due regard paid by our Party and State and efforts made by the province’s Party Organisation, authorities, and people, Quang Binh has obtained significant achievements in socio-economic development, while its people’s material and mental life has been considerably improved. More investments have been made in traffic infrastructures with a lot of modern border gates and seaports; therefore, the province has been bustling with domestic and international trade. That is favourable condition for the province’s development, but also a “fertile land” for crime of various types, particularly drug trafficking and cross-border crime. Recently, due to impacts made by COVID-19 pandemic and sweeps carried out by Northern provincial competent forces, transnational drug trafficking organisations have changed their operational routes, with Quang Binh being a transit area. Besides, hostile forces have stepped up their sabotage strategy against our Party, all-level authorities, and national great unity block.

To maintain political security and social order and safety, particularly in border areas, the Provincial Party Committee, the Provincial People’s Council, and the Provincial People’s Committee have attached great value to leading and directing the political system and all people to build a solid all-people border defence and a firm “posture of people’s hearts and minds.” The province has focused its leadership and direction on disseminating and implementing the Strategy for the Homeland Protection in the New Situation, the National Border Protection Strategy, the National Security Protection Strategy, the Vietnam Border Defence Law, and projects on building the all-people border defence and the posture of all-people border defence within border areas. It has promulgated resolutions on closely combining socio-economic development with defence-security consolidation for each tenure and year.

To manage and defend national sovereignty and border security, all-level party committees and authorities have directed relevant forces to seriously realise the Agreement on land border and border gate management regulations and the Protocol on Border between Vietnam and Laos. The Provincial Border Guard (PBG) has promoted its core role in researching, assessing, and anticipating situations, opportunely helping the province to effectively deal with border-related issues, actively building political bases in each area, patrolling borders, national border markers, and waters, preventing and combating illegal immigration, thereby contributing to making border areas increasingly strong.

In COVID-19 prevention and control, the province has directed its border guard, military, public security, and medical forces to promote their core role in curbing the pandemic. In addition to performing their task at checkpoints and patrolling land and sea borders, those forces have taken part in pandemic prevention and control at quarantine zones, received and transported citizens and medical equipment, helped the people to harvest produce, and implemented measures for natural disaster prevention and mitigation to protect the people’s life and assets.

In addition to building strong border areas, the province has directed its forces, particularly the PBG to conduct a lot of criminal investigations, including large-scale, complex ones, thereby making contributions to maintaining security and order and protecting the people’s peaceful life within border areas. At the same time, it has directed its border districts and communes to cooperate with the PBG in executing a large number of socio-economic development programmes, mobilising all resources to construct bridges and houses for citizens affected by storms, floods, and landslides, establishing electricity grid in remote, isolated villages and hamlets, and implementing many projects to serve ethnic minority people and citizens in extreme difficulty.

Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee visiting and giving presents to ethnic minority people in Truong Son commune, Quang Ninh district

In the upcoming time, more demanding requirements will be imposed on the Homeland construction and protection. Security situation at the province’s borders will continue to be complex. Hostile forces will step up their “peaceful evolution” strategy and promote “self-evolution” and “self-transformation” from within. Drug and explosive trafficking, illegal exploitation of forest resources, disputes over fishing grounds, and violations of our waters will be on the rise.

Against such a backdrop, the Provincial Party Committee and all-level party committees and authorities will continue adopting measures to comprehensively perform all tasks and particularly build a solid all-people border defence and a firm “posture of people’s hearts and minds,” with a focus on the following.

First, continue grasping and seriously, drastically, effectively implementing the Party’s guidelines and the State’s laws and policies. Emphasis should be placed on executing the Strategy for the Homeland Protection in the New Situation, the National Border Protection Strategy, the National Security Protection Strategy, and the Vietnam Border Defence Law and resolutely firmly protecting national sovereignty and border security, the Party, authorities, the people, and the majesty of national symbol at borders and border gates. At the same time, due regard should be paid to fostering socio-economic development and improving material and mental life of all citizens, particularly ethnic minority people and those living in remote, isolated, border areas.

Second, focus leadership and direction on grasping, evaluating, and anticipating situations to avoid falling into passivity. To that end, all forces, especially the PBG should grasp public opinion and the people’s legitimate aspirations to give advice to all-level party committees and authorities on state management of borders, seas, and islands. Great value should be attached to developing and executing projects to effectively prevent hostile forces’ plots and artifices and violations of national security. Consideration should be given to helping all-level party committees and authorities opportunely settle incidents relating to security and order in border areas so as to avoid forming “hot spots.”

Furthermore, it is important to continue effectively implementing the Coordination Regulations between the PBG’s Party Committee and district-level party committees in the period of 2021-2025 and the Project on “appointing the PBG’s cadres as deputy secretaries of commune-level party committees and deploying members of the PBG’s Party Organisations to attend party cells’ meetings within several villages of border communes in Western Quang Binh.” Significance should be attached to promoting the role of cadres as members of district-level and commune-level Party Committees, 41 cadres attending party cells’ meetings within villages of border communes, and 377 party members in charge of giving assistance to 1,741 border households in order to build strong political bases in border areas.

Third, manage and firmly protect national sovereignty and border security. To that end, it is essential to enhance the work of law propagation, dissemination, and education to render fishermen fully aware of statutory regulations on fishing. Due attention should be paid to cooperating with relevant provinces, municipalities, and forces in strictly handling violations of other countries’ seas and statutory regulations committed by our fishermen. More measures should be intensified to prevent and minimise our fishermen’s illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing. Besides, it is vital to closely control entries and exits by citizens and vessels at estuaries under statutory regulations.

Additionally, importance should be attached to bringing into play the role of organisations and forces, particularly the PBG in managing and protecting borders and areas, well carrying out the work of immigration across borders, and preventing and effectively combating crime of all types, especially drug trafficking so as to contribute to ensuring political security and social order and safety within the province.

The province’s border guard, military, and public security forces should enhance coordination to review and supplement projects on natural disaster response and search and rescue, strictly maintain personnel and means to opportunely respond to natural disasters and incidents, actively, proactively take part in conducting search and rescue operations and protecting forests and natural minerals, and readily participate in epidemic prevention and control in border areas.

Fourth, keep effectively performing people-to-people, defence, and border defence diplomacy work and well handle issues at borders and seas to contribute to building borders of peace, friendship, cooperation, and development. To do so, it is necessary to maintain and develop twinning programmes between the PBG and the border guard force of Khammouane and Savannakhet provinces of Laos in order to create synergy for building, managing, and protecting border areas. Besides, it is important to regularly and irregularly organise dialogues between the PBG and competent forces of Laos to opportunely deal with issues relating to borders and border gates. Due attention should be paid to effectively implementing projects by the State and the Central Military Commission on encouraging cooperation with other countries sharing land borders with Vietnam.

Fifth, make the provincial armed forces, especially the PBG comprehensively strong and capable of playing a core role in building the all-people border defence. The PBG must always grasp and strictly follow the Party’s principles of democratic centralism and self-criticism and criticism, while raising its all-level party organisations’ leadership capacity and combativeness and the quality of its cadres and party members. Emphasis should be placed on well executing the Resolutions of the 4^th meetings of the Party Central Committee (12^th and 13^th tenure)  on building and rectifying the Party and the political system, stepping up the study and following of Ho Chi Minh’s ideology, ethics, and lifestyle, and implementing regulations on cadres and party members’ responsibility to set good examples. Due regard should be paid to managing party members and initiating new members, particularly ethnic minority soldiers into the Party.

Additionally, it is vital to actively collaborate with all-level party committees, authorities, and relevant offices in effectively implementing socio-economic development programmes/projects, building new-style countryside, and consolidating defence and security within border areas. Significance should be attached to enhancing movements, such as “all people participate in protecting national sovereignty and border security in the new situation” and “all people take part in COVID-19 and illegal immigration prevention and control” in order to maintain political security and social order and safety as the basis for enabling Quang Binh to soon realise its goal of becoming a well-developed province within the North Central Coast.

VU DAI THANG, Member of the Party Central Committee

Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee