The mountainous and border province of Ha Giang is located in the northernmost part of the country, which is of strategic importance to Military Region 2 and the North. Fully aware of its position, over the years, the Provincial Party Committee, the People's Council and People's Committee have always focused on leading, directing, and strictly implementing the resolutions and directives of the Party, the State, the Ministry of National Defence, and the Military Region 2’s Command on military and defence tasks. In particular, building a solid provincial defence area is considered an important issue, contributing to the rapid and sustainable development of the locality.

With appropriate and scientific solutions, Ha Giang, recently, has consolidated its potentials in general and defence potential in particular rather steadily. This is reflected in the fact that positive changes have been seen in the awareness, consciousness and responsibility of the Party Committee, authorities, armed forces and people for the task of national construction and defence; its people's trust in the political system has been increasingly strengthened; political security, social order and safety in the province are always kept stable; major developments have been seen in the fields of economy, culture, society, science and technology; Economic - defense zone 313 has been built and operated effectively; the all-people national defence, all-people’s defence posture, people's security posture, and all-people’s border defence posture are being increasingly linked together; the provincial armed forces are built strong in politics, ideology, organisation, morality and cadres, playing as the core force in performing military, defence and security tasks; the military constructions are built systematically, together with the adjustment of force disposition, bringing about a continuity in the overall defence posture of the province, etc.

In the coming time, in order to stabilise the area to create favourable conditions for socio-economic development, and promptly and effectively handle defence and security situations; develop potentials, forces and all-round defence and security posture, meeting the requirements and tasks of Fatherland protection, the Provincial Party Committee and the Provincial People's Committee continued to lead and direct the synchronous implementation of tasks, focusing on the following ones:

First of all, continue to thoroughly grasp and strictly implement the resolutions and directives on building defence areas. The province focuses on directing its departments, agencies, organisations, and localities, especially the Provincial steering committee for the construction of defensive areas to continue to thoroughly grasp the resolutions, directives and instructions of higher echelons and the Provincial Party Committee on military, defence and security tasks, on building defensive areas, thereby promoting the synergy of forces in performing this important task. Regularly consolidate and improve the quality of operation of the Steering Committee for the construction of defense zones at all levels and the role of military commands.

Based on the resolution of the Provincial Party Committee, the assigned defence and military tasks, the Provincial Military Command reviews the guiding documents of the superiors; coordinates with the functional agencies of Military Region 2, and the provincial departments and branches have promptly advised the Provincial Party Committee and the Provincial People's Committee to issue documents directing the construction and operation of the defence area suitably with the characteristics and  socio-economic level of the locality. At the same time, the province requires its agencies, units and localities to seriously and effectively associate socio-economic development with strengthening military, defence and security potentials in the area. The performance of tasks by agencies, units and localities is checked and evaluated on a monthly, quarterly and yearly basis to promptly correct the mistakes, draw lessons, overcome the shortcomings and settle the problems arising during the construction and operation of the defence area.

Second, promote economic development to create foundation for building political - spiritual, cultural, social, defence, security and foreign affairs potentials. As the province has many potentials and advantages to attract investment in the fields of agriculture, forestry, services, tourism,.... its leaders direct its departments, branches and sectors to focus on exploiting the strengths of each region to create resources for economic development and building defence areas. In particular, priorities are given to promoting administrative reform, perfecting mechanisms and policies, improving the investment environment, building infrastructure, especially traffic infrastructure to attract domestic and foreign investors; developing border gate economy; mining and processing minerals; processing agricultural and forestry products; tourism, etc. In addition, the provincial planning, zoning planning, and regional planning are actively made, with attention paid to the Dong Van Stone Plateau Global Geopark; review and adjust the planning of some projects; build concentrated areas for tea growing industry associated with investment in processing facilities for export products in the districts of: Bac Quang, Vi Xuyen, Hoang Su Phi, Quang Binh; make plans of concentrated material areas for the processing industry of agro-forestry products, food,...while encouraging businesses to invest in the processing of products that are environmentally friendly.

With the economic achievements, the province advocates to promote the building of potentials in the defence area, focusing on building infrastructure serving both civilian and defence and security needs, such as traffic routes, education, healthcare, and telecommunications facilities, etc. Besides, the province attaches importance to preserving identity and promoting traditional cultural values of ethnic groups; consolidating and improving the operational efficiency of governments at all levels; consolidating and strengthening the great national unity bloc; encouraging local people to strictly follow the guidelines of the Party, policies and laws of the State, and actively participate in the development of household economy, contributing to the construction of an increasingly solid defence area of the province.

Third, build all-strong armed forces with high overall quality and combat power, acting as the core in building the defence area. The province focuses on directing the construction of the armed forces in the direction of "revolutionary, regular, elite, and increasingly modern", with reasonable quantity, high quality, meeting the requirements and tasks in the new situation. Great importance is attached to building its armed forces strong in politics, ideology, organisation, morality and personnel. Emphasis is placed on building clean and strong party organisations associated with all-strong, “exemplary and typical” units, serving as a solid support for the people of Ha Giang in implementing the task of national construction and defence.

What’s more, the province focuses on directing agencies and units to actively innovate training contents, programmes and methods; improve the quality of training and combat readiness for the armed forces; hold defensive combat drills close to the characteristics of the mountainous area, tasks, capabilities, and forte of each unit, thereby enhancing the leadership, direction and administration capacity of the Party committees, local authorities and the level of command and coordination of the units. The forces regularly grasp and accurately forecast the situation of political security; actively advise the Party committees and local authorities to promptly and effectively handle military, defence and security situations, not to be made passive or surprised; at the same time, promoting their key role in natural disaster prevention and control, search and rescue, forest fire prevention and fighting, etc., contributing to maintaining political security, social order and safety in the area, ensuring the increasingly effective construction and operation of the defense area.

Last but not least, make complete plan of and build military constructions of defensive area in a solid and in-depth manner. To fulfil this task, the province focuses on effectively implementing the Project of "ensuring national defence in Ha Giang province in the period of 2015 – 2020, with orientation to 2030"; reviews, adjusts and completes the land use planning in association with the plan for defence land use in the 2021 – 2030 period, with a vision to 2050; direct its departments, agencies and sectors to coordinate with functional agencies of the Military Region 2 to complete the planning on building components of the military posture in the defensive area, thereby advising the Provincial People's Committee to direct the construction of military structures in the defensive area towards "basic, solid, continuous and in-depth" direction, suitable to the features of the area and the arrangement of the armed forces; priorities are given to the construction of important, urgent and dual-use projects, such as: combat bases, basic headquarters, defensive fulcrums, manoeuvre roads, etc. Continue to renovate and repair natural caves to become rear bases, logistics and technical warehouses; strictly manage and regularly repair the system of combat works, natural caves to ensure that they are always ready for defence and security situations.

NGUYEN VAN SON, Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee