A training session on the Milita and Self-defence law

First of all, the City has attached special importance to improving the efficiency and effectiveness of leadership, direction, and administration of the party committees and authorities and promoting the advisory, core, and presiding role of the military agencies at all levels over such important task. Accordingly, the City Party Committee and City People's Committee have directed departments, branches, sectors, Party committees, and authorities at all levels to thoroughly grasp the Party's directives and resolutions and State’s legal documents on the militia and self-defence force, especially Directive No.16-CT/TW issued on October 5th, 2002 by the Party Central Secretariat (11th Tenure) on “Strengthening the Party's leadership over the militia and self-defense force and the mobilisation reserve force in the new situation” and the Militia and Self-Defense Law. On that basis, it has enhanced the awareness of the position, role, and importance of the militia and self-defence force in the cause of building and protecting the Fatherland and strengthened the leadership of the Party Committees and the management and administration of the authorities at all levels over the building of the force. The City Military Command has also presided the coordination with the departments, branches, and localities in, advising and assisting the City Party Committee, City People's Council, and City People's Committee in developing and promulgating leadership and direction documents, plans, and schemes on organising the development, training, operation, and assurance of regimes and policies for the militia and self-defence force based on local characteristics. It then has promoted the core role in guiding, inspecting, urging, and organising the implementation to create the unification of awareness and responsibility and integration of the whole political system, especially the local party committees and authorities. To implement the 2019 Militia and Self-Defence Law, the Military Command has actively advised the City to promote propagation, dissemination, and training of the Law and its guiding documents as prescribed and organised the online training conference on the Militia and Self-Defense Law and Mobilisation Reserve Force Law from the City to communes, wards, and towns with 95 stations for 3,018 officials. At the same time, the City has also directed departments, branches, and localities to develop implementation plans to quickly bring the Law to life to meet the requirements of building and protecting the Fatherland.

Building the militia and self-defence force with a reasonable number, structure, and composition and increasingly high overall quality is the goal of the militia and self-defence work - the central content of the local defence work. The city has focused on leading directing the local, grassroots Party committees and authorities, directly the military agencies at all levels, to do well the registration and strict management of citizens at the age of performing the duty to join the militia and self-defence force as prescribed; and selecting, appointing, and dismissing cadres, organising a new militia-self-defence admission ceremony, and demobilising those who have fulfilled their duty, ensuring seriousness, dignity, publicity, and democracy from the grassroots level. The localities have paid attention to building militia and self-defence force with a reasonable number, structure, and composition to suit each area, especially in key defence and security ones. Importance has also been attached to building a core, mobility, service militia force, and self-defence force in agencies, businesses, etc. Along with the careful review and evaluation of inputs, especially political standards, the Party committees at all levels have focused on leading and directing to improve the quality of political education associated with regularity construction and disciplinary training for the force.

In recent years, the City has accelerated economic development and built several industrial zones, which has attracted thousands of workers and labourers, most of whom are at the age to perform the self-defence service duty as prescribed. The City Military Command has determined that organising and building the militia and self-defence force in industrial zones and clusters in general and the self-defence force in foreign-invested businesses, in particular are an urgent and objective requirement. Therefore, the City Military Command has advised the City Party Committee and City People's Committee to direct localities to enhance fostering knowledge of defence and security for business owners to propagate them to understand the Party's undertakings and lines and meet and dialogue with business associations to clarify the need to establish the self-defense force. At the same time, the City has proposed to gradually adopt policies and measures to establish Party organisations among businesses in the area to serve as a basis for promoting the building of self-defence force in the business community in the coming time.

The quality and efficiency of building the militia and self-defence force depend greatly on the contingent of military cadres at the grassroots level. Grasping the spirit of “cadre is the root of all jobs”, the City has actively generated cadre resources to plan and send to training and fostering courses to build a contingent of cadres of communal military commanding boards and commanders of self-defence units in agencies and businesses, etc. The selection, training, and use of communal military commanders have been concerned, led, and directed by the local Party Committees and authorities under the Party's cadre work regulations and processes. Since 2015, the City has trained and sent to training courses nearly 700 communal military cadres with intermediate, college, and university degrees in grassroots military to ensure 100% of the communal military commanding boards arranging the correct positions as prescribed. These cadres are well promoting their role and effectively performing their assigned responsibilities and duties; particularly several comrades have been promoted to higher positions. Currently, 98.79% of commanders and 98.70% of deputy commanders of communal military commanding boards have been trained, while 100% of commanders are participating in the Party committees and People's Committee.

To promote the militia and self-defence’s role as the core in performing military and defence tasks at the grassroots level, the City has focused on improving training quality and operational efficiency. Accordingly, localities and units have promoted innovation to improve the quality of training and drills. During the training process, the City Military Command has required localities and units to follow the motto of “Basic, practicality, and quality”; comprehensively implementi with focuses, key points, and contents to be close to the payroll organisation, equipment, and tasks of each force to suit the reality of the area; closely combine military training with political and legal education, regularity building, and discipline training; and link training to defensive area, and search and rescue drills at all levels. Consequently, the overall quality and the capacity to perform the tasks of the militia and self-defence force have been increasingly improved. The annual training results have been 100% satisfactory, including over 75% of good and very good rate. Besides training, the City has directed localities to strictly observe the regulations on the use of militia and self-defence and manage the activities of the force. Importance has been attached to improving the efficiency of the coordination with the Public Security in organising patrols and maintaining security and order, especially in industrial zones and clusters and sensitive areas and actively participating in preventing and controlling natural disasters, explosions and fire, outbreaks of the Covid-19, and search and rescue work, etc.

Along with that, the City has also taken care of assuring regimes and policies for the militia and self-defence; actively balanced, proactively allocated budgets, and mobilised resources under the provisions of law to assure regimes and policies to make them enthusiastic with their tasks. Concurrently, it has directed functional departments to arrange budgets to assure and implement new regimes and policies on social insurance and health insurance for the permanent militia under the 2019 Militia and Self-defence Law.

With the strict leadership and direction of the Party Committee and authorities and the participation of the political system and the entire people, the militia and self-defence force of Can Tho City has been built to be “strong and widespread” to play the key role in performing defence and military tasks at the grassroots level and contribute to maintaining political security, social order, and safety and creating favorable conditions for the City’s rapid and sustainable economic development.

Senior Colonel CHIEM THONG NHAT, Deputy Secretary of the Military Party Committee and Commander of the City Military Command