Over the past 40 years of construction and development, Corps 15 has always promoted internal strength and overcome all difficulties to successfully fulfil the task of combining economic development with defence and security consolidation within the strategic area of Central Highlands. That is an important prerequisite for the Corps to keep raising the performance of its economic and defence tasks in the new situation.
Corps 15 (aka Corporation 15) was founded on 20 February 1985 on the basis of rearranging combat and combat service units on South, Central, and Central Highlands battlefields to align defence tasks with economic development in the strategic area of Central Highlands. Over the past 40 years, under the leadership and direction of the Central Military Commission (CMC) and the Ministry of National Defence (MND), thanks to the shelter and support from local party committees, authorities, citizens, and friendly units, generations of the Corps’ cadres, soldiers, and employees have always promoted the virtues of “Uncle Ho’s Soldiers”, maintaining unity, dynamism, creativity, and a close-knit bond with the people, proactively surmounting all hardships to successfully accomplish all assigned tasks.
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| Corps 15 gives presents to ethnic minorities of Kon Tum province on Tet holiday |
While comprehensively performing military and defence tasks, the Corps has concentrated its economic tasks on developing industrial crops, especially rubber planting and processing. With a strategic vision for development, the Corps has proactively renewed its thinking, creating new values in production and business, making more stable employments and income for its staff, accompanying local authorities and citizens in the socio-economic development process. In 2024, the Corps’ total production value was 2,950 billion VND, reaching 99.74% of its plan; its turnover was 2,764 billion VND, achieving 101.79% of its plan; the per capita income of its staff was 7.5 million VND per month. It cooperated with localities in planning and constructing hundreds of residential clusters along the border, ensuring life stability for more than 13,000 households with nearly 52,000 residents, and making strategic areas no longer “devoid of population”. From only 5,000 employees, 3 residential clusters, 21 residential areas, and 1,718 households in 1991, up to now, the Corps has created stable employments and income for nearly 15,000 people (including 9,330 ethnic minorities), together with part-time jobs for tens of thousands of citizens. The formation of new villages and hamlets in line with production development has not only created a favourable condition for the people’s stable life, but also made contributions to strengthening all-people national defence and people’s security postures within the border area. The Corps has invested in building and upgrading electricity, traffic, school, and health care systems to serve both economic and defence tasks and the people’s cultural and social life. It has effectively maintained 11 nursery schools with 293 classes, 1 third-class military hospital, and 11 military - civilian clinics, while providing medical examination and treatment for tens of thousands of citizens per annum.
Under the motto: “the Corps is twinned with provinces and districts; companies are twinned with districts and communes; production teams are twinned with hamlets and villages”, the Corps has effectively maintained the “twinning model” between Kinh worker households with ethnic minority households and actively cooperated with localities to conduct mass mobilisation work, execute national target programs on hunger eradication, poverty reduction, and new-style rural area construction, and raise the quality of grass-roots political system. Due attention has been paid to defence diplomacy; the Corps has made investments in socio-economic development in Laos and Cambodia, creating employments for nearly 1,500 people on the spot, contributing to defending our country early and from afar. With its brilliant achievements, the Corps and 1 individual have been given the title of Hero of the People’s Armed Forces by the State; 3 affiliated units and 2 individuals have been honoured with the title of “Labour Hero”.
Currently, the Corps is performing its economic and defence tasks in the remote, isolated, ethnic minority areas which share a 251 kilometre-long-plus border with Laos and Cambodia; it is also executing projects in 271 villages, 41 communes under 9 districts of 4 Vietnamese provinces, 3 districts of Cambodia’s Rattanakiri province, and 4 districts of Laos’ Attapeu province. Those difficult, demanding tasks necessitate the Corps’ Party Committee and Command continuing to formulate proper lines and measures for successfully accomplishing their assigned missions, particularly the economic and defence tasks in the new situation.
First, grasping and creatively applying lines, goals, and viewpoints by the Party, State, and CMC on strengthening leadership and direction over socio-economic development associated with defence and security consolidation. Emphasis will be placed on Resolution 23-NQ/TW, dated 6 October 2022, by the 13th Politburo, on directions for socio-economic development and defence and security consolidation in the Central Highlands towards 2030, with a vision towards 2045, the CMC’s Resolution 820-NQ/QUTW, dated 17 February 2021, and the MND’s Plan 763/KH-BQP, dated 17 March 2022, on leadership over production and economic tasks combined with national defence within the Military towards 2030. While well performing its assigned functions and tasks, adhering to the Party’s lines, the State’s laws, and the MND’s regulations, the Corps will take socio-economic development, political stability, and defence and security consolidation as its prime goal, attaching great value to natural resource and environment protection and sustainable development. All-level party committees and commands will heighten a sense of responsibility, better performing economic and defence tasks under new thinking and approaches, stepping up digital transformation, applying scientific and technological advances to raise their task performance. They will closely work with localities and relevant forces to grasp situational developments and opportunely deal with emerging issues in tandem with local socio-economic development.
Second, focusing on comprehensively, synchronously performing military and defence work, building “exemplarily, typically” comprehensively strong offices and units as the basis for economic and defence tasks. The Corps will continue to grasp and conform to regulations on new organisational structure, decisions on defence and security enterprise recognition, and organising and operating regulations for its subsidiaries after approval. It will design combat readiness documents, strictly maintaining combat readiness duty, practising projects on combat, fire and explosion prevention and control, and safety assurance, preparing forces and means for incident response and search and rescue. It will regularly closely cooperate with relevant forces to monitor situational developments in its stationed areas, along the border, and within its project areas in Laos and Cambodia as the basis for giving advice on handling incidents. Offices and units of the Corps will organise combat readiness training courses for their staff to ensure absolute safety. The Corps will step up the building of “exemplarily, typically” comprehensively strong offices and units, raising the quality of political and ideological education, enhancing discipline management, minimising violations of discipline. At the same time, the Corps will frequently consolidate its self-defence force, well implementing plans on coordination between its self-defence force and other relevant forces to successfully settle possible situations in its stationed areas, right at grass-roots level.
Third, improving capabilities in production management, direction, and operation, ensuring sustainable development under law. The Corps will grasp and conform to the Prime Minister’s Decision on approving the Project to rearrange military enterprises in the period of 2021 - 2025, the Project on restructuring and financial handling of Corporation 15 in the period of 2021 - 2025 as well as market forecasts to develop its production and business plans in a practical, flexible, highly feasible way. It will synchronously adopt measures of management to fight wastefulness, practise thrift, control production costs, utilise product values, increase productivity, lower the price of its products, while striving to achieve and surpass its established targets. Resources and measures will be concentrated on improving production quality and efficiency and closely managing product materials. The Corps will mobilise sufficient capital for its tasks and proactively grasp market price to facilitate product consumption. Offices of the Corps will enhance inspection and supervision, opportunely reviewing and adjusting economic and technical norms-related plans, processes, and systems as well as assignment and payment projects, striving to reduce costs, lower product price, increase productivity and business efficiency, and ensure income of employees.
The Corps will continue to effectively conduct regenerative and companion planting, take care of plantations, ensure animal husbandry under technical procedures, closely control the quality of latex inputs and outputs, and step up researches into new products. It will well implement projects on sustainable forest management, forest certification, and especially Chain of Custody (CoC) Certification for its rubber plantations and products. It will regularly monitor and inspect labour safety work, labour norms, assignment projects, and remuneration policies, while synchronously taking measures to improve productivity and ensure income, entitlements, and policies for its employees.
Fourth, actively, proactively working with local party committees and authorities to effectively execute models and projects under national target programs on socio-economic development of ethnic minority and mountainous regions, new-style rural area building, and sustainable poverty reduction. This is one of the Corps’ consistent goals that will provide a foundation for building a firm “posture of people’s hearts and minds” and strengthening defence and security in its stationed areas. To that end, it is a must for the Corps to marshal sufficient resources and identify the right way to help localities with sustainable socio-economic development. Affiliates of the Corps will step up the implementation of hunger eradication and poverty reduction projects, with a focus on agriculture and forestry promotion, technical transfer, production support, and vocational training on the spot. The Corps will continue to propose investments from budget in works under its medium-term plan and constructions for production and the people’s life. It will enhance management of basic construction investment from beginning to end, while accelerating the progress of remaining projects and constructions under its medium-term plan of 2021 - 2025. Working teams and groups deployed at grass-roots level will carry out propagation work to encourage the people to adhere to the Party’s lines and the State’s laws and policies, build civilised life, and get rid of depraved customs and social evils. They will give advice on building and consolidating all-level party committees, authorities, and mass organisations. At the same time, they will take part in integrated military - civilian medical programs for public health in the project areas, cementing military - civilian unity, making contributions to building a firm “posture of people’s hearts and minds” in the strategic area of Central Highlands.
Maj. Gen. HOANG VAN SY
Commander of Corps 15