Performing its economic-defence tasks in the strategic Central Highlands, over the years, Corps 15 has always strived to overcome all difficulties, maintained a close-knit bond with local party committees, authorities, and ethnic people, effectively implemented socio-economic, cultural development programmes, consolidated defence and security, and fostered comprehensive, synchronous development in the area mainly inhabited by ethnic minority people, thereby making contributions to building a firm all-people national defence posture.
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| Commander of the Corps visits a rice field planted in rubber plantation |
Surmounting difficulties and challenges to assist ethnic minority people in escaping poverty
Central Highlands is characterised by revolutionary tradition and deep-rooted cultural identity. In our resistance wars against the French and the U.S, ethnic people of the Central Highlands dedicated themselves to the Party and Uncle Ho, contributed human and material resources, and scored many landslide victories. Over the years, thanks to due regard paid by our Party and State, the Central Highlands in general and its people’s living standards, in particular, have seen considerable improvements. However, as a result of the wars, land in the Central Highlands is severely contaminated by bombs, mines, and toxic chemicals. Meanwhile, infrastructures here are poor and ethnic minority people are familiar with backward shifting cultivation, with low productivity. Besides, hostile forces have employed every plot and artifice to undermine our national great unity block, political security, and social order and safety. Against that backdrop, Corps 15 has worked towards a lot of guidelines and policies to step by step boost infrastructural development, stabilise residential areas, take advantage of land, train on-the-spot human resources, develop industrial crops, conduct vocational training, create employments, and provide technical and financial support for ethnic minority people’s household economy development. In the early days of its foundation, in order to stabilise ethnic minority people’s life, the Corps enhanced the work of propagation to persuade the people to adopt sedentary farming, give up depraved customs, and gradually build a new life. The Corps reclaimed and cleaned up tens of thousands of hectares of wasteland and land contaminated by bombs, mines, and toxic chemicals, while selecting rubber and coffee trees as staple crops in accordance with the Central Highlands’ climate and soil conditions. Tens of thousands of ethnic minority labourers were trained and given instructions on rubber and coffee planting and processing by the Corps; they were also provided with employments, stable income, and sufficient policies and entitlements. Up to now, the Corps has managed and exploited more than 40,000 hectares of rubber trees, 200 hectares of coffee trees, 70 hectares of rice, 6 rubber latex processing plants, 1 microbiological fertiliser factory, and rubber wood processing factory, thus creating jobs for nearly 17,000 labourers, including over 8,000 ethnic minorities with stable income. In addition to production, the Corps has constructed hundreds of residential areas and stepped up infrastructural development for ethnic minority people’s life, making contributions to building an increasingly firm all-people’s national defence posture.
To assist locals in sustainable poverty reduction, the Corps has encouraged ethnic minority people to develop the household economy. It has enhanced technical transfer, provided seedlings, breeding animals, and production materials, constructed canals, and supported consumption of products. As a result, the people have known how to accumulate capital, make investments in production, escape poverty, and make a fortune on their own land.
Tapping into internal strength to well perform the work of social security
The Corps has attached importance to the work of social security, particularly education, training, and healthcare. The Corps’ Vocational College has provided vocational training and offered employments to thousands of ethnic minority young people. Up to now, the Corps has constructed 8 primary and secondary schools for localities as well as 10 kindergartens within companies and economic-defence units for 6,000 ethnic minority children. Those children have received proper education according to their ages; the rate of children attending secondary and high schools has been unceasingly increased. The Corps’ Military Hospital 15 and civil-military infirmaries have frequently well taken care of health of cadres, soldiers, labourers, and citizens, while focusing on the work of disease prevention and control. On a yearly basis, those facilities provide free medical examinations and medicine for thousands of ethnic minorities, worth of billions of VND. The Corps also assisted localities in COVID-19 prevention and control, organised vaccination programmes, and provided villages, hamlets, and ethnic minority households with food during the pandemic.
With support from the Ministry of National Defence and its own resources, the Corps has constructed hundreds of “Great Unity Houses”, “Charity Houses”, “Comradeship Houses”, and “Trade Union Houses” for households in difficulty. Due regard has been paid to taking care of war invalids’ families, martyrs’ relatives, ethnic minorities with meritorious services to the revolution, village heads, and persons with great prestige in isolated, remote, border areas, visiting and giving gifts to locals, and encouraging the people to overcome all difficulties and conform to the Party’s guidelines and the State’s laws and policies.
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| Granting Tet gifts to local people |
Smart mass mobilisation models towards the building of a close-knit all-people great unity block
“Maintaining a close-knit bond with the people” represents a consistent policy and tradition of the Corps in the construction and development process. Cementing a close-knit bond between the Corps, provinces, and districts, between companies, economic-defence units, districts and communes, between production units, villages, and hamlets, and between Kinh and ethnic minority households, the Corps’ affiliates have been twinned with communes, villages, and hamlets in their areas of operation to give support for socio-economic, cultural development and the people’s improved life. Creative, practical models aimed at ethnic minorities, such as “unity amongst households”, “jars of rice of unity”, “vegetable gardens of unity”, “breakfasts of unity” have been brought into play and multiplied. Since 2007, under the model “unity amongst households”, 4,000 pairs of Kinh and Jrai households have been twinned with one another. At present, units of the Corps have developed the relationship between former and new worker households as well as between different ethnic minority households. This is a very practical, effective mass mobilisation model aimed at fostering household economy development and well-being. From those recorded good results, the Corps will continue promoting mass mobilisation models in a practical and sustainable manner to guarantee a close-knit bond amongst all ethnic minority households within the areas.
Building cultural environment and grass-roots level political system, well implementing policies for ethnic minorities
The Central Highlands has a deep-rooted culture deeply imbued with national identity; there are world cultural heritage sites, such as the space of Gong culture, Rong house, and festivals held by ethnic minority people. Fully aware of the region’s characteristics, the Corps’ Party Committee and Command have advocated economic development associated with culture building and directed all affiliates to encourage ethnic minority people to preserve fine cultural values, remove depraved customs, and build a civilised lifestyle. The Corps has frequently cooperated with local party committees, authorities, and competent agencies in building, strengthening, and preserving cultural institutions, such as Rong houses and community houses, while giving financial assistance in acquiring gongs, restoring traditional festivals, launching cultural exchange programmes between 28 ethnic groups to create cultural crossover. In addition to the work of propagation about the building of a civilised lifestyle, due attention has been paid to organising sports activities, mass art competitions, and rubber tapper competitions to make contributions to honouring and conserving unique cultural features of each ethnic group, improving the people’s mental life.
A part from the building of a cultural environment, the Corps has always concentrated on directing its affiliates to make grass-roots level political bases, particularly within communes, villages, and hamlets capable of leading, managing, and operating the tasks of economic development and defence-security consolidation. While coordinating with local party committees, authorities, and competent agencies to train and develop ethnic minority cadres, the Corps’ units and offices have actively joined hands in building strong grass-roots level political systems, which has been considered as a determining factor in dealing with ethnicity-related issues within localities. Currently, many members of the Corps’ production teams are assigned to be heads of villages and secretaries of village party committees. Workers and members of the self-defence force within the Corps’ units are also militiamen and semi-official policemen in villages and hamlets. At the same time, the Corps has proactively taken part in building and bringing into play Fatherland fronts, politico-social organisations, village heads, and persons with great prestige within ethnic minority groups so that they would be more responsible for encouraging the people to conform with the Party’s guidelines and the State’s laws and policies. Significance has been attached to making local armed forces comprehensively strong and capable of successfully fulfilling all assigned tasks.
Under our Party and State’s policies on the smallest ethnic minority groups, the Corps has focused on giving support for developing Ro Mam ethnic minority group (according to the Vietnam census of April 1st, 2019, there are only about 685 Ro Mam people) and helping those people with sedentary farming and forest-based economy development. Priority has been given to providing vocational training and employments with stable income for the people of Ro Mam and ensuring sufficient policies for those people. Simultaneously, importance has been attached to epidemic prevention and control and persuading the people to avoid consanguine marriage, improve nutrition, guarantee education for children, and restore handicrafts and traditional cultural festivals, thereby making significant contributions to preserving and developing the people of Ro Mam within the great family of Vietnamese ethnic groups.
Ethnicity work constitutes a long-term strategic issue of our Party and State. This work becomes more important in a strategic area, which necessitates the Corps’ Party Committee and Command continuing to grasp and seriously implement ethnicity-related guidelines and policies of the Party, the State, and the Ministry of National Defence, especially the Resolution of the 13th National Party Congress and national target programmes on socio-economic development within ethnic minority and mountainous areas in the period of 2021-2030. Emphasis has been placed on improving knowledge of ethnic minority languages of cadres, officers, professional service men and women, workers, and national defence officials across the Corps. Consideration has been given to persuading the people in ethnic minority and border areas to obey the Party’s guidelines and the State’s laws and policies. Due attention has been paid to building high-quality human resources, enhancing agriculture training, and passing ethnic minorities’ experience in planting traditional crops. In addition to socio-economic development, the Corps has stepped up the work of social security, the building of new-style countryside, hunger eradication, and sustainable poverty reduction to make contributions to successfully fulfilling the Resolution of the 13th National Party Congress on ethnicity work in the new situation.
Sr. Col. KHUAT BA CAO, Secretary of the Corps Party Committee, Deputy Commander of the Corps