Over the past few years, with appropriate measures and abundant, flexible, strict organization, Bac Lieu Provincial Military Party Committee and Command have effectively directed the implementation of the emulation and reward work, and the “Determined to Win” Emulation Movement (hereafter the Movement), providing a source of motivation for agencies, units and individuals to overcome difficulties and successfully fulfil their tasks.

To this end, the Provincial Military Party Committee and Command give priority to thoroughly grasping the guidelines and directions of the Party, State and Army on the emulation and reward work, the Patriotic Emulation Movement in general, the “Determined to Win” Emulation Movement in particular; strengthening education, building awareness, responsibility, motivation and determination for cadres and soldiers. The Provincial Military Party Committee (PMPC) educates its units on the basic spirit of the superior’s directives, especially the Directive 34-CT/TW of the 11^th Politburo, Directive 507-CT/QUTW on July 28^th, 2014 of the Central Military Commission, Directive 940/CT-ĐU on November 3^rd 2014 of the Standing Party Committee of Military Region 9 and documents of Bac Lieu Provincial Party Committee and People’s Committee on the emulation and reward work, the Patriotic Emulation Movement, the “Determined to win” Emulation Movement as the basis for units at all levels to build their leadership resolutions, transform them into quarterly and monthly action plans and set emulation criteria in accordance with the characteristics and tasks of each unit. Emulation councils (boards and teams) at all levels are consolidated with sufficient quantity and appropriate structure, operating under a unified regime. Political agencies and cadres well perform the role of advising the command on leadership and organization, creating unity in cadres’ and soldiers’ awareness and responsibility for carrying out the Movement. Most of the officials in charge clearly define the purpose and requirements of the Emulation work and the Movement as well; heighten responsibility in leadership, direction and organization, becoming a driving force for each collective and individual to strive to successfully complete all assigned tasks.

The Movement by the provincial armed forces always aims at building strong political, ideological, organizational agencies and units, with the focus on the Party building work. The PMPC’s Standing Board regards the Movement as a favorable environment to promote the work of  “Studying and following Ho Chi Minh’s ideology, morality and lifestyle” and conduct the Campaign “Promoting traditions, devoting talents, deserving to be Uncle Ho’s Soldiers” combined with the implementation of the Central Resolution 4 (12^th tenure) on Party building and rectification work. Being highly aware of this issue, the committees at all levels attach the importance to building party organizations, forming clean strong party cells as well as developing a contingent of officials on a par with task requirements. The agencies and units have closely and strictly made use of diverse contents and methods such as: the Propaganda contest on studying and following Uncle Ho’s teachings, young officers’ talks,  lessons on specific topics, the competition on the position and career of President Ho Chi Minh and story-telling about Uncle Ho, etc. Thanks to these activities, a number of typical groups and individuals, “good people, good deeds” examples, new and effective models are replicated throughout the Provincial armed forces. In addition, the Movement focuses on building strong organizations and personnel, a strong political and spiritual foundation, preserving solidarity, unity and consensus in units as well as good relationships between officers and soldiers, superiors and subordinates. According to the annual quality review and analysis, over 74.25% of party organizations are clean and strong; over 96.13% of party members excellently fulfil their tasks; 100% of military party cells in the commune (wards, districts) have committees.

The PMPC’s Standing Board requires the unit’s command to regularly renew the content and organization of the Movement in close combination with the implementation of political tasks; to place emphasis on overcoming weaknesses, improving the quality and efficiency of all aspects. Accordingly, all steps of the Movement have been taken synchronously. The emulation content is closely linked to significant political events of the country, the locality and also to major campaigns within the entire Party, the Army and people, with a focus on implementing key political tasks, especially improving the training quality, combat readiness, and building comprehensively strong units and agencies. Simultaneously, it well performs the function of advising the local authorities to lead and direct the implementation of national defense and military tasks; to build defensive areas and enhance its potentials; to consolidate the all-people national defense posture in association with a solid people security posture. Through the movement, the provincial armed forces have organized strictly the training work, notably building plans, training cadres, preparing lessons, lectures, drill grounds, training aids, ensuring the strength, content, schedule as prescribed with increasingly high quality. The training results show that permanent forces achieve and exceed the set objectives and requirements; the unit is ranked as a good one in training recruits. In training the militia and self-defense and reserve forces, 100% of each type pass the test (84% and 80-85% are classified as credit and good, respectively). Last but not least, the Movement has contributed to a remarkable transformation in building regularity, discipline and creating a cultural environment; increasingly raising the awareness of cadres and soldiers in obeying laws and disciplines.

The Movement has created a positive impetus for the provincial armed forces to well perform the function as “an army ready for work” participating in building socio-political bases and strengthening army-people unity. With active participation in the movements, namely “Hunger eradication and poverty reduction”, “remembering the source when drinking water”, “Gratitude”, “Good solidarity, strict discipline, effective mass mobilization”, and the Campaigns, such as “The entire people unite to build a cultural life”, “Join hands to build new rural areas”, etc., the Provincial armed forces have proactively cooperated with local people in carrying out the task of socio-cultural, economic development. Meanwhile, it well implements the work of preventing drought, saltwater intrusion, forest fire; participates in handling arising complex problems at grassroots level, building cultural lives in residential areas, making a great contribution to safeguarding political security and social order and safety in the area. In addition, the Provincial armed forces regularly perform mass mobilization in remote, underdeveloped areas, collaborate with people in the region to well implement social policy work, consolidate political bases and build an increasingly stable “posture of people’s hearts and minds”.

 At the same time, the Movement has been widely conducted in the logistics and technical work. In particular, the Logistics branch continues to well perform the movement: “Military Logistics Branch follows Uncle Ho’s teachings”, “The unit of good financial management”, “Building good units in raising troops and managing ordnance”, etc. The constant development of the above movements helps ensure logistics in any situation. A lot of models have brought about high economic benefits, such as: intensive shrimp farming of the Logistics Department, the Staff Department and Military Commands of Phuoc Long and Hong Dan districts. Thankfully, units and agencies put an extra daily 1,500 VND per person to soldiers’ regular meals. Besides, the barracks system has been built synchronously and regularly in a “bright, green, clean and scenic” manner, ensuring soldiers’ living quality up to standards. The Emulation movement in technical work has aimed at educating to raise responsibility in managing and using weapons and equipment, to improve professional qualifications for officers and professional technicians, encouraging initiatives, improving the quality of weapons and equipment repair, strictly maintaining daily and weekly maintenance regulations. The Party committees and commanders at all levels have well implemented the campaign “Managing, exploiting, and using technical weapons and equipment properly, durably, safely and economically, and traffic safety”. The models of “Youth Garage”, “Model Warehouse”, “Technical Day”, “Traffic culture with water safety”, etc. have been warmly welcomed by officers and soldiers, contributing to the improvement in technical quality, well serving training tasks and combat readiness of the provincial armed forces.

To spread the Movement, the Provincial Military Party Committee and Command focus on selecting, fostering and duplicating typical and “good people, good deeds” examples. Annually, units and agencies establish criteria and models; encourage individuals and collectives to conduct research and suggest practical solutions. The reward work has been conducted democratically and transparently. The executive committees have consulted the emulation boards for emulation results and chosen the right collectives and individuals for commendation. Meanwhile, the emphasis is placed upon selecting and discovering typical ones, collectives and individuals with creative methods. During the Movement, there have appeared new models and good practices such as “Review exemplary soldiers worthy of Uncle Ho's soldiers”, “Youth study hours”, “Psychological and legal advisory groups”, “Good mass mobilization”, “Mass mobilization at grassroots level”, “Help each other overcome difficulties”, “Take care of orphans, lonely elderly”, “Military-civilian rice jars”, etc. In the past five years, 966 collectives and 3,707 individuals from the provincial armed forces have been rewarded during the Movement and the local patriotic emulation one. These results not only help the Movement  constantly develop, build comprehensively strong provincial armed forces but also improve the material and spiritual life of officers and soldiers; changing the landscape, environment, working style in the whole unit; contributing to the improvement in the overall quality, combat strength; enabling the provincial armed forces to successfully fulfil all assigned tasks.

Senior Colonel Le Hoang Giu, Political Commissar of the Provincial Military Command