When he was alive, President Ho Chi Minh was always interested in seeking, training, and developing talented people to create synergy for the nation’s revolution. It is a priceless lesson that should be further researched and applied to develop our country in general, our defence industry in particular in the new situation.

Inheriting and developing viewpoints on talent retention in the country’s history, especially being imbued with the saying: “moral and talented people are the core of the nation”, in his revolutionary cause, President Ho Chi Minh was always aware of the role of special importance of talented people. He said that “there should be national construction. And our national construction needs talented people”. “The intelligentsia is the precious capital of the nation”. Thus, he invested a lot of time and effort in seeking, detecting, and gathering many intellectuals both inside and outside the Party, while directly training and encouraging them to devote their talent to serving the Fatherland and the people. Amongst talented people recruited by President Ho Chi Minh, some made significant contributions to developing the Ordnance Branch. That has been an important foundation and orientation for attracting and retaining talented people to keep developing the Defence Industry of Viet Nam over the past 80 years.

Currently, according to our Party, it is necessary to “build a proactive, self-reliant, dual-purpose, modern defence industry via our internal strength as the determinant”; “defence industry must be an integral and key part of national industry”. To do so, it is a basic and urgent demand that we have high-quality human resources. Therefore, researching, grasping, and creatively applying Ho Chi Minh’s thought on talent retention to national construction in general, the building and development of defence industry in particular serve as a deciding factor. Doing so will help attract talented people, bring into play the role of operational and strategic level cadres, researchers, top technology experts, and leaders of defence industry units, successfully fulfil tasks, goals, and requirements of building and developing defence industry of Viet Nam in the new period. To that end, it is essential to implement several main measures as follows.

First, thoroughly grasping and creatively applying Ho Chi Minh’s thought on talent retention to developing proper mechanisms and policies for talent attraction. According to President Ho Chi Minh, we should not only nominate talented people to important posts, but also detect, attract, train, retain, treat, and respect those people. He believed that  talent retention must be a routine, constant deed like “gardeners plant precious trees”. “It is necessary to respect talented people,  cadres, and  each person that is helpful for our common cause”, he said. Therefore, in order to build and develop an independent, self-reliant, modern, defence industry into a key part of the national industry, it is essential to focus on building and promulgating Law on Defence Industry, completing the system of mechanisms and policies in a synchronous, effective manner; there should be decentralisation of management of defence industry from the Government to ministries, sectors, and localities. Due attention should be paid to formulating and concretising preferential treatment mechanisms and policies to attract and recruit talented people for the building and development of defence industry of Viet Nam. Additionally, it is necessary to grasp and realise the Party’s viewpoints on raising the quality of human resources, formulating breakthrough mechanisms for attracting and retaining talented people, fostering innovation and creativity, and further applying science and technology, particularly the advancement made by the 4^th industrial revolution as a strong incentive for rapid and sustainable development”. There should be mechanisms for encouraging and protecting cadres who dare to think, dare to do, and dare to make breakthroughs for common benefits; at the same time, it is vital to raise cadres’ responsibility and aspiration for serving the people under the 13^th Politburo’s Conclusion 14-KL/TW, dated September 22^nd, 2021. Emphasis should be placed on closely combining obligations with benefits, improving cadres’ political qualities and morality, well implementing preferential treatment policies, and creating an equal, healthy environment for talented people to dedicate themselves to the development of defence industry in the new period.

A workshop on talent attraction held by the General Department of Defence Industry

Second, talent retention must be in a close relationship with the renovation and development of education and training as well as the building of the intelligentsia in a synchronous, long-term, sustainable fashion. When he was alive, President Ho Chi Minh said: “the training of cadres is the root work of the Party”. In the process of leading the Vietnamese revolution, he always gave top priority to cultivating talented people for the country and training a contingent of “both red and expert” cadres. In his Testament, he underlined: “the training and education of future revolutionary generations is of great importance and necessity”. Thus, talent retention must be closely associated with the implementation of viewpoints and goals of renewing and developing education and training. Due regard should be paid to educating young generations on revolutionary ideal, morality, lifestyle, patriotism, national pride, and aspiration, building future generations, bringing into play tradition, potential, and aspiration of pupils and students, especially children of cadres and party members within the Military in general, the Ordnance – Viet Nam Defence Industry Branch in particular. Significance should be attached to training cadres both at home and abroad, improving the quality of training across military schools, attracting and recruiting gifted students from  universities and colleges to build and develop defence industry of Viet Nam. The training of cadres and the development of talented people must be elaborate, really scientific and demonstrate great regard paid by our Party, State, people, and Military; it is necessary to create the best condition for cadres and talented people to improve themselves. At the same time, great value should be attached to promoting the role and responsibility of top scientists who are experienced in researching, designing, and manufacturing weapons and technical equipment to train new scientists.

Third, well implementing personnel work. In the employment of people in general, talented people in particular, President Ho Chi Minh always believed that “cadres are the root of all work”. Meanwhile, in order to build the national defence in the new period, there should be many cadres who are capable of giving advice, proposing measures, and completing mechanisms and policies to ensure a close connection between defence industry and national industry. Besides, there should be many talented people as key cadres in charge of directing and implementing key defence industry programmes and projects to meet the requirements of Fatherland protection and make contributions to socio-economic development. To that end, all-level party committees and commands should attach special importance to raising the quality of personnel work. It is essential to adhere to resolutions, directives, plans, and guiding documents on personnel work, particularly Resolution 283-NQ/ĐU, dated October 24^th, 2016 by the Party Committee of the General Department of Defence Industry on “leading the building of a contingent of cadres, implementing personnel work towards 2020 and beyond” so as to create a contingent of scientists with proper quantity and high quality. The General Department and research centres should attach importance to selecting cadres who have been trained both at home and abroad and have great capacity for research as scientists. It is necessary to proactively review, detect, train, and retain young scientists. Research centres should grasp the criteria for professional titles as the basis for building a contingent of scientists. There should be preferential treatment policies for cadres with excellent research topics and projects which have been applied to directly contribute to improving productivity and efficiency in research, manufacture, and business as a strong incentive for them to keep dedicating themselves to the Defence Industry Branch and the Military.

Fourth, focusing on researching and creatively applying Ho Chi Minh’s thought on talent retention. This is an important task and the key to laying a scientific foundation for gathering forces, bringing into play resources for seeking, recruiting, attracting, training, and developing cadres and talented people to meet the requirements set by the building and development of defence industry of Viet Nam in the new period. Our consistent goals are creating a synchronous, sustainable change in the quantity, structure, and quality of high-calibre human resources for serving the Military and developing defence industry, building a contingent of talented cadres as operational and strategic level officers, heads of defence industry offices and units, attracting, training, developing talented people as scientists and top technology experts, particularly constructors, master constructors, chief designers, head engineers, and chief technologists with political zeal, pure morality, and great professional capacity on a par with their task requirements. Great value should be attached to clarifying and providing theoretical and practical bases for our Party and State to formulate and perfect a national strategy on talent attraction and retention; doing so will help usher in a new period for the building and developing of defence industry of Viet Nam.

President Ho Chi Minh’s thought on talent retention represents an important, valuable lesson that should continuously be researched and effectively applied to make contributions to fostering the long-term, sustainable development of defence industry of Viet Nam in the new period.

Lt. Gen. NGUYEN MANH HUNG, Political Commissar of the General Department of Defence Industry