The province of Binh Duong is situated in the southern economic zone, a contiguous area between the South, the southernmost point of Central Viet Nam and the Central Highlands, thus occupying a position of strategic importance in terms of politics, economy, society, national defence, and security. Currently, the province has 28 industrial parks and 11 industrial clusters with nearly one million immigrant workers from other localities nationwide. Consequently, beside its advantage as the leading locality in industrialisation and modernisation, economic structure shifting in a modern direction, continually high growth rate, and increasingly improved people’s living standard, social order, criminal violations, and security in industrial zones, religious security, and rural security witness complications. Meanwhile, hostile forces and political opportunists continue to step up sabotage in every aspect of social life, especially the incitement of demonstrations, proceedings with the involvement of large crowds, and strikes. In addition, fire and explosion, traffic accidents and jams, illegal religious preaching, superstition, etc., still occur. On clearly perceiving local characteristics, in recent years, the provincial armed forces have shown solidarity, proactively overcome difficulties, and brought into play its leading role, together with local party committees, authorities, and people, in successfully perform the military, defence work in connection with controlling the COVID-19 pandemic, creating a favourable environment for socio-economic development of the province. On the basis of its operations, the provincial armed forces has drawn some lessons, which are fundamental solutions being adopted effectively by departments, units, and localities.

First, the Provincial Military Command attaches importance to advising the Provincial Party Committee and People’s Committee on enhancing leadership of local military, defence missions. On the basis of deeply grasping the Party’s viewpoints and guidelines on military and national defence as well as resolutions and directives of higher echelons, the Provincial Military Command proactively works with functional advisory bodies of the Provincial Party Committee and People’s Committee to promulgate many resolutions, directives, and plans with the aim of strengthening leadership of party committees and authorities’ direction and management of military, defence missions. To promote the effectiveness of state management of national defence, military commands at all levels proactively propose conduct of preliminary review and summation of the implementation of laws and sublaw documents regarding this crucial work, thus correctly assessing strengths, weaknesses, and causes and mapping out measures to timely address the shortcoming. The military and defence work, therefore, is always led and instructed closely and unanimously. Leadership, management jurisdiction and responsibility of levels and branches as well as working relations and mechanisms for command and control during mission execution are concretised, ensuring closeness, unanimity, synchronicity, and leverage of the strength of the entire political system and people.

A meeting convened by the Provincial Military Party

The province pays constant attention to popularisation of defence and security knowledge among all subjects and people and regards this as a crucial solution, contributing to accomplishment of military and defence work in the locality. On promoting its role as the standing body, the Provincial Military Command and military commands at all levels have actively advised the people’s committees at their respective levels to regularly review and improve operational effectiveness. The military commands at all levels take initiative in working with commissions and branches concerned to check, classify, and develop plans to conduct education, ensuring closeness and scientificness without missing out any subjects. Attention is paid to renewal of educational content and methodologies in the direction of updating information, associating with defence, security missions, and matching characteristics and conditions of each area. In 2022, together with advising the province to send 28 tier-1 and tier-2 cadres to classes held by the higher echelon, the Provincial Military Command suggested that the Provincial Council of Defence and Security Education hold a class for 152 tier-3 cadres; directed organisation of 95 classes for nearly 11 thousand tier-4 cadres. It proactively worked with the Military School of the 4th Military Region to give lessons on national defence and security to students of five colleges and three universities; instructed two universities and 10 vocational secondary schools to deliver lessons on national defence and security by themselves. Besides, its political department had a column to propagandise military and defence work of the province and activities of the provincial armed forces through the mass media, thereby furthering awareness and responsibility of levels, branches, unions, and people for consolidation of national defence and protection of the Fatherland in the new situation.

Moreover, the Provincial Military Command focuses on advising the province to combine socio-economic development with strengthening national defence and security and building increasingly robust defensive zones. More importantly, the viewpoint, content, and solutions regarding combination are concretised in directives and resolutions of the Provincial Party Committee and People’s Committee on military and defence missions in each term and year as well as in the master planning socio-economic development and plans for establishing defensive zones of the province, departments, divisions, branches, and localities. The military commands at all levels have taken initiative in collaborating with the Public Security and functional branches to appraise key projects, ensuring that these projects both meet socio-economic development requirements and strengthening of defence and military potentials. In the building of defensive zones, all activities are under the unanimous leadership of party committees and management of authorities at all levels. The Provincial Military Command attaches importance to building of defence projects, combat bases, rear bases, logistical-technical bases, and military posture of the defensives zone, ensuring practicality, effectiveness, thrift, and suitability for socio-economic development planning and requirements of defending the locality in peacetime and wartime. Furthermore, it tries to improve the defence estates planning and formulate the master plan for combining force disposition with socio-economic development; does some planning for defence projects, military areas, ammunition depots, and defence industry in the 2021-2030 period with a vision to 2050. The Provincial Military Command has collaborated with functional agencies to advise the province to build the main provincial-level Headquarters; worked with the Department of Planning and Investment and the People’s Committee of Dau Tieng District to allocate finance for land clearance and transfer Dau Tieng Airport. The military commands at all levels, together with relevant divisions and branches, advise party committees and authorities to formulate documents, operational plans, as well as plans for defence mobilisation, people’s air defence, prevention and response to floods and storms, search and rescue, prevention and response to fires, explosion, and forest fires; timely supplement and adjust A, A2, A3 documents, ensuring closeness to reality; complete the A4 Plans; instruct and help department and branches to accomplish their system of documents relating to defensive operations (B Plan).

Building a strong armed forces is a vital content, the deciding factor in the success of military, defence missions of the province. Accordingly, the Military Party Committee and Provincial Military Command pay attention to leadership of strengthening organisations and staffing to match functions and missions of each force (local force, reserve, militia and self-defence force). Priority is given to provide enough people for units undertaking combat readiness and operating in key areas in terms of national defence and security. Furthermore, the Military Party Committee and Provincial Military Command step up reform to improve quality of training and exercises, ensuring closeness to reality, enemy, concept of operations, and areas of responsibility. During implementation, the Provincial Military Command requests its units to associate political education, military training with promoting order and discipline, strictly maintaining regulations on combat readiness, and creating overall power for successfully accomplish assigned tasks.

On clearly perceiving difficulties in attracting and using the human resources for military and defence missions, military commands at all levels actively propose that the corresponding party committees and authorities lead and instruct leverage of the overall power of the political system to implement synchronous, unanimous recruitment steps. Attention should be paid to good conduct of education and propaganda about rights and duties of citizens to protect the Fatherland; close management of resources and cases qualifying for a waiver to military service; presentation of gifts and passbooks; development of resources for prospective party membership before joining the army; collaboration with recruitment consultancies to sign agreements on vocational training and job creation, etc., in order to encourage young people to join the army. As for building of the reserve, the Provincial Military Command promotes review to have a good understanding of quantity and quality; trains reserve officers to supplement the inadequate military specialties by local budgets; good management of vehicles mobilised for national defence and development of plans for mobilising the industry, etc., ensuring sufficient quantity and correct military specialties above 92%. Moreover, the province attaches importance to building of a robust, extensive militia and self-defence force, most notably enhancement of training, operating quality of the standing militia force. To meet the requirement of protecting and preserving stability of the grassroots areas in the new situation, the province escalates management of the self-defence force in industrial parks, especially in foreign invested enterprises. In 2022, the province established 21 self-defence units, bringing the number of these units to 91, making a crucial contribution to firm maintenance of political security and social order and safety right from the grassroots level.

In addition to successful implementation of the above-mentioned missions and solutions, the armed forces of Binh Duong Province continues to strictly realise mechanisms for coordinating and exchanging information, which serves to facilitate a thorough understanding of situations in the areas, natural disasters, and pandemics without falling into passivity and surprise in any situations. It also works with branches and localities to step up propagation about military, defence missions, promote mass mobilisation in association with participating in building new-style countryside and socio-economic development; well carry out the policy on military families; establish a strong all-people national defence capable of meeting requirements of building and safeguarding the Fatherland in the new situation.

Senior Colonel NGUYEN HOANG MINH, Member of the Provincial Party Committee’s Standing Commission, Chief of the Provincial Military Command