Comprehending the Party’s guidelines on building the all-people national defence, Soc Trang province has set store by the improved quality of building national defence potential and solid defensive zone, meeting the Homeland protection requirements in the new situation.

Soc Trang province is located in the Cuu Long river delta, holding a position of importance to the socio-economic development and defence-security in the defensive posture of the Military Region 9 and the whole Southwestern region of Vietnam. Thus, while boosting socio-economic development to improve the people’s mental and material life, the province has attached to performing the defence-security work in each area, and especially enhancing national defence potential and building a solid defensive zone, and attained many significant results. It should be noted that 65% of the province’s communes and wards are key defence and security areas, nearly 35% of its population are ethnic people with the unequal intellectual standards; hostile forces have been stepping up their sabotage plan. However, thanks to due regard paid to national defence and security work, the province has opportunely, effectively dealt with the situations, contributing to maintaining political security and social order, facilitating Soc Trang’s rapid, sustainable development.

The Provincial Military Party Committee passes the Combat Determination during the defensive zone exercise of 2018

To gain those achievements, the province has attached great importance to building national defence potential, first and foremost the politico-spiritual potential and the posture of “people’s hearts and minds”. Grounded on the conditions of each area, the province has directed all-level party committees to build pure, strong party organizations and comprehensively strong authorities, particularly those in ethnic minority inhabited coastal communes. An emphasis has been placed on building cadres and party members’ political will, morality, lifestyle, and leadership style, and actively preventing and repelling the degradation in political ideology, morality and lifestyle as well as the signs of “self-evolution” and “self-transformation” from within. As a result, in 2018, 77.92% of grass-roots party organizations within the province’s Party Committee were rated pure and strong while 87.87% of its party members successfully fulfilled their task. Besides, the province has paid due regard to implementing the Regulations on grass-roots level democracy, ensuring that “the people know, the people do, the people discuss, the people inspect”. At the same time, due attention has been paid to streamlining the administrative apparatus, accelerating reform in administration and improving the efficiency of state management of various areas, particularly national defence. Great value has been attached to well implementing social policies and encouraging the movements, namely “hunger alleviation, poverty reduction”, “Gratitude”, “Building new-style rural area” as well as helping the people with natural prevention and control and search and rescue. Therefore, the people’s faith in the Party’s leadership and all-level authorities’ management has been strengthened as the basis for building a firm posture of “people’s hearts and minds”.

Furthermore, the province has promoted the advisory, core role of all-level military offices in providing defence-security education for people from all walks of life. As the standing office of the Provincial Defence and Security Education Council, the Provincial Military Command (PMC) has proactively built and executed the plan for defence-security education in accordance with local conditions. While holding defence-security education courses at all levels, the province has also provided defence-security education for ship owners and dignitaries. The role of mass media has been encouraged to propagate the Party’s guidelines and the State’s law and policy on the task of Homeland protection as well as unmask the hostile forces’ nature, plots and acts of sabotage, thereby raising all people’s revolutionary vigilance and resolutely, effectively preventing and combating the hostile forces’ “peaceful evolution” strategy and their plot of an “apolitical Military”. Moreover, the PMC has directed its offices and units to actively take part in consolidating the system of political bases, building a contingent of cadres, and developing party membership; to well perform the work of mass mobilization, particularly in the key areas. Those operations have contributed to encouraging the synergy of the whole political system and people to strengthen national defence potential and build a solid defensive zone.

Promoting all available advantages and potential, the province has boosted socio-economic development and improved the people’s material and mental life as the material foundation for building national defence potential. In spite of difficulties and challenges, the province’s economic growth rate between 2008 and 2018 has reached 12.3% per year. Up to now, the province has fulfiled and exceeded 18 economic targets set by the Resolution of the 13^th Provincial Party Congress (2016-2020 tenure); scientific and technological advances applied to production and international integration have created a positive change in the province’s economic structure. Besides, the province has promoted the advisory role of all-level military offices in combining socio-economic development with defence-security consolidation, ensuring that each economic growth step will consolidate national defence potential. The PMC has advised the Provincial Party Committee and People’s Committee on completing and executing the Plan for socio-economic development in combination with defence-security until 2020 and many other plans/projects. That combination has been not only included in plans but also realized in dual-use infrastructure projects, such as the systems of traffic roads, posts and telecommunications, health, seaports, etc. Many key constructions and industrial parks have been upgraded, such as the National Highways 1, Southern Hau River, and Quan Lo - Phung Hiep, the An Nghiep industrial park and cluster, and the Tran De seaport; residential clusters and new urban areas have been formed to encourage socio-economic development and ensure the operations of the defensive zone when the situation occurs. Localities and enterprises in the province have applied modern production process to agriculture; reorganized cooperatives; planned and developed intensive production zones; adapted to climate change, protected the environment, and used clean energy sources. To develop the marine economy, the province has directed localities to actively plant the protection forests, construct over 400km of coastal dyke and embankment, improve the system of seaports, develop logistics services and tourism as well as organize high-powered fishing fleets which are also ready for protecting sea and island sovereignty of the Homeland. Only in 2018, the province has produced over 2.2 million tons of rice and over 250,000 tons of seafood. Those results have helped improve the people’s life and made contributions to national defence reserve and economic potential of the defensive zone.

Training the coastal militia force

Military potential holds the core role in building the national defence potential. Thus, the province has taken various measures to streamline the organizational structure of all-level military offices, militia and self-defence units, and reserve units in accordance with local conditions. The province has required offices and units of the armed forces to renew and improve the quality of training under the Central Military Commission’s Resolution 765-NQ/QUTW and make it relevant to objects, task and riverine, coastal area. Importance has been attached to combining the training task with regularity building, discipline management, and observance of the State’s law among all troops. At the same time, defensive zone exercises and civilian defensive exercises at all levels have been well organized in order to test the capability to operate the mechanisms for leading, controlling, and mobilizing forces and material resources in the states of national defence and the performance of other tasks. Since 2008, the province has held 227 defensive zone exercises at all levels, including the provincial large-scale, all-round defensive zone exercise of 2018 highly appreciated by the Military Region 9. Besides, the province has directed the implementation of the regulations on cooperation between the Military, the Public Security, the Border Guard, the Naval Zone 2, and the Coast Guard in grasping the situation and opportunely, effectively dealing with defence-security situations to avoid being transformed into “hot spots” in the area, thereby defending political security, social order, and sea sovereignty.

Also, consideration has been given to building the military posture in the defensive zone, particularly building combat bases, rear bases, and the systems of headquarters, battlefields, manoeuvre roads, logistics-technical bases as well as material reserves at the provincial and military region levels. To make this work effective and appropriate to the economic condition, the province has directed localities to proactively review the area and formulate the detailed plans as the basis for mobilizing resources in building the posture under the preset road map. In medium term, the province focuses on investing in essential, dual-use projects, such as the key traffic system and riverine, coastal dykes and embankments so as to support force manoeuvre, establish the inter-connected posture, transform the posture, and facilitate socio-economic development. Accordingly, priority has been given to building important military works which directly and regularly serve the operation of the defensive zone, such as training grounds, border post and commune-level military command headquarters. In the process, the province has made best use of the existing facilities and natural terrain to reduce the costs and protect the environment. In spite of economic difficulties, over the past years, the province has spent hundreds of billions of VND on building defence-security works.

The results of the building of national defence potential lay a solid foundation for Soc Trang to continue promoting the synergy of the entire political system and people to make the province politically strong, economically powerful, and firm in defence and security, contributing to defending the Homeland of socialist Vietnam.

Sr. Col. Tran Van Lau, Standing Member of the Provincial Party Committee

Commander of the PMC