Honourably, proudly inheriting and promoting Truong Son Soldiers’ heroic tradition, cadres and soldiers of the Corps 12 (Truong Son Construction Corporation) have always heightened a sense of unity, strived to overcome difficulties and challenges, proactively integrated into the world, and successfully fulfilled the task of combining economic development with national defence, thereby greatly contributing to the Homeland construction and defence.
Realizing the determination to defeat the US invaders, liberate the South, and unify the country, on May 19th 1959, the Special Military Working Group (Group 559) - the forerunner of the present-day Corps 12 was founded and tasked with establishing the Truong Son Strategic Transportation Line - the legendary Ho Chi Minh Trail to provide military supplies for the South and transport cadres, soldiers and documents from the North to the South and vice versa.
 |
| Maj. Gen. Nguyen Anh Tuan addressing the Meeting with Truong Son veterans on the occasion of the 60th Anniversary of Truong Son Soldiers |
Fully aware of the special importance of the assigned task, the Group 559’s cadres and soldiers together with our military and people overcame the fierceness of the war to pave the way for transporting troops and materiel to the Southern battlefield. Under the spirit of “splitting Truong Son Range to save the country”, “fighting the enemy to move forward, paving the way for advance”, and “the pavement is also the battlefield”, Truong Son Soldiers courageously stuck to the Truong Son Strategic Transportation Line, built the Line, transported military supplies, organized the training work, fought against the enemy’s preventive war, maintained the traffic “blood vessel”, and developed the Truong Son Line - Ho Chi Minh Trail into a legendary path to connect the North with the South as a symbol of burning aspirations for national independence, freedom and unification. Within 16 years (1959-1975), Truong Son Soldiers transported over 1 million tons of materiel and military supplies to the battlefields, ensured a favourable condition for over 2 million troops to march southwards, and brought hundreds of thousands of war invalids and sick soldiers back to the North. At the same time, they organized thousands of battles, shot down over 2,400 aircraft, annihilated tens of thousands of enemy troops, and destroyed hundreds of thousands of tons of the enemy’s materiel and means of war, thereby greatly contributing to leading our war against America for national salvation to the complete victory. With those achievements and feats of arms, the Group 559 was given the title of Hero of the People’s Armed Forces and the Ho Chi Minh Order by the State; 82 units and 51 persons from the Group were given the title of Hero of the People’s Armed Forces while hundreds of units and hundreds of thousands of cadres and soldiers were presented orders and medals of all types.
Since the end of the war, Truong Son Soldiers have been assigned to foster economic development in line with national defence consolidation. The Group 559 has been renamed the Corps 12. On the new front, the Corps’ staff members have kept promoting Truong Son Soldiers’ heroic tradition, helping the people in all places across the country, mainly in remote, isolated border areas, implementing and building thousands of works and projects, including national key ones, contributing to boosting socio-economic development, consolidating defence-security, and helping the peoples of Laos and Cambodia. The Corps has step by step integrated into the world and developed into a prestige military-run enterprise in the construction of traffic infrastructure, hydropower plants, and irrigation works; it is also a strategic reserve bridge-road engineer unit of the Ministry of National Defence.
For the last 10 years, the Corps has transformed into an economic-defence enterprise with the financial autonomy in business and production. In spite of the fact that the Corp has faced difficulties in its operating mechanism and the intense competition of the market economy, most of its machines and equipment have been obsolete, and its cadres’ management capacity and experience have been limited, the Corps’ Party and Command have grasped the Party’s guidelines on combining economic development with national defence and vice versa, proactively, flexibly formulated various measures to renew and rearrange its structure in line with its model of operation, developed the strategy for production and business, enhanced its competiveness, diversified its business and production, with a focus on taking basic construction as the main and traffic infrastructure construction as the centre in association with general business. Besides, the Corps has actively acquired modern equipment, proactively accessed the markets, and further applied advanced technologies to production, thereby developing high-quality products for customers. It has invested thousands of billions of VND in renewing equipment and technology, including many pieces of equipment for road, bridge, hydropower plant, irrigation, airport, seaport construction, thereby meeting the requirements set by large-scale domestic and international works. As for its manpower, it has gradually executed business rearrangement, restructuring and reform under the direction of the Central Military Commission (CMC) and the Ministry of National Defence (MND) in a “compact, strong, effective” manner, with priority given to recruiting high-calibre cadres and employees.
 |
| Ta Trach Reservoir (Thua Thien Hue province) designed and constructed by the Corps 12 |
With the sound orientation and tireless efforts, the Corps has step by step proved itself. Over the past 30 years of combining economic development with national defence, its production value has unceasingly increased (15% per year). It has fully performed its duty of payment to the State’s budget and achieved the target of profit, thereby greatly contributing to consolidating the national defence potential. The Corps has constructed and put thousands of constructions across the country to use, including many national key ones, such as Northern Thang Long - Noi Bai Highway, Noi Bai - Bac Ninh Highway, Cau Gie - Ninh Binh Highway, Danang - Quang Ngai Highway, Ho Chi Minh city - Trung Luong Highway, Ho Chi Minh city - Long Thanh - Dau Giay Highway, Hanoi - Thai Nguyen Highway, National Highway 5, National Highway 1A, Bai Chay Bridge (Quang Ninh province), Hai Van Tunnel, East Truong Son Road, border patrol road, National Highway 78 (Cambodia), Buon Ma Thuot Airport, Vinh Airport, Savannakhet Airport (Laos). Moreover, the Corps has taken part in building essential work items of the Son La (Lai Chau province), Buon Kuop, and Buon Tua Srah Hydropower Plants and taken charge of building the Srepok 3 Hydropower Plant (Dak Lak province), sea embankment in the Cam Ranh naval base zone, Tan Vu - Lach Huyen road (Hai Phong city), Hoa Phat Dung Quat Iron and Steel Production Complex, Hospital 175 (the MND), Ea Hleo 1 Reservoir (Dak Lak province) as well as many other civilian and industrial constructions. Many constructions designed and built by the Corps have been given the High-Quality Work Gold Medal by the Ministry of Transport. Notably, at present, the Survey Design Institute under the Corps 12 (aka the Construction Survey Design and Consultant Company - Truong Son Construction Corporation) has been ranked the fifth in Vietnam’s survey design capability chart.
Addition to business and production, the Corps has always attached importance to performing the military-defence task and building a pure, strong Party Committee and making itself comprehensively strong. It has closely combined business and production with the work of mass mobilization and the social and Army Rear policies, while taking part in helping the people with hunger eradication and poverty reduction and building local political bases, thereby contributing to building a firm posture of “people’s hearts and minds” and the solid all-people national defence in its operating areas.
During its process of construction and development, the Corps has always preserved and promoted Truong Son Soldiers’ heroic tradition to the utmost. In any place, from the Central Highlands to the remote, isolated border, sea, island areas, in any circumstance, the Corps has always proactively overcome difficulties to successfully fulfil the assigned task, stably develop and integrate into the world, thereby contributing to asserting the Military’s prestige and political responsibility for grasping and carrying out the tasks of combining economic development with national defence, constructing and defending the Homeland of socialist Vietnam.
At present, the Corps is actively transforming from an enterprise in which the State holds 100% of the capital into a One Member Limited Liability Company under the parent-subsidiary model that operates under the Enterprise Law and the MND’s regulations. Promoting Truong Son Soldiers’ 60-year tradition and performing its functions as “an army ready for combat, work, and production” in the new situation, the Corps continues to grasp the Party’s guidelines on combining economy with national defence and vice versa, and step up the implementation of the CMC’s Resolution 520-NQ/QUTW on “leading the Military’s task of production and economic development in combination with national defence towards 2020”. To do so, it enhances the all-level party committees and commands’ leadership and direction over the task of business and production, resolutely implementing the restructuring, and improving its efficiency under the Government’s Project 80 and the CMC’s Resolution 425-NQ/QUTW. Besides, the Corps continues to formulate and complete the strategies for development, business and production, while speeding up business cooperation and raising its competitiveness. The entire Corps achieves a consensus on the motto of “considering effective business and production as the central task and building the Party as the key, aligning economic effectiveness with socio-political effectiveness, well performing the duty of payment to the State’s budget, and keeping improving labourers’ income and living standard”. At the same time, it persistently advocates regarding basic construction as the main and traffic infrastructure construction as the centre, diversifying its products and business and raising its capacity to construct civilian and industrial works, high buildings, industrial zone facilities, and large plants.
The good nature, fine tradition, and resounding victory of the Corps 559 - the Truong Son Soldiers on the Truong Son Strategic Transportation Line - Ho Chi Minh Trail will be preserved forever. And that will give a solid foundation for the Corps 12’s staff members (the Truong Son Construction Corporation) to strive to fulfil every assigned task and make contributions to the whole Party, Military and people’s successful implementation of the Homeland construction and defence cause in the new situation.
Maj. Gen. Nguyen Anh Tuan, PhD
Commander of the Corps 12