Search and rescue constitute a “combat task in peacetime”, contributing to building a safe society against incidents, natural disasters, epidemics, and catastrophes. Performing an important role in civil defence work, incident and natural disaster response, and search and rescue, the Department of Search and Rescue Operations has been synchronously adopting various measures to successfully fulfil its functions and assigned tasks.

Director of the Department of Search and Rescue Operations delivering task performance report of 2022 to Prime Minister

Recent realities have revealed that incidents, catastrophes, natural disasters, and epidemics have been posing serious challenges to all countries; therefore, every nation places a top priority on incident, natural disaster, and epidemic mitigation. As for Vietnam, incident, catastrophe, natural disaster, and epidemic prevention and mitigation have been seen as a crucial, routine task of the entire Party, Military, people, and political system from Central to grass-roots levels. To well perform this important task, there should be a strategic office capable of giving advice to the Central Military Commission (CMC), Ministry of National Defence (MND), and General Staff on directing the whole Military and assisting the Government and Prime Minister in directing ministries, sectors, and localities to prevent and respond to incidents, catastrophes, natural disasters, and epidemics. For that reason, on 9 August 2004, the MND released Decision 109/QĐ-BQP on establishing the Department of Search and Rescue Operations; on 16 July 2020, the Prime Minister decided to establish the National Steering Committee for Civil Defence; the Department was, therefore, assigned to serve as the Office of the National Steering Committee for Civil Defence.

Currently, the Department is performing three functions simultaneously, namely (1) advising the CMC, MND, and General Staff to direct the whole Military to carry out the tasks of civil defence, incident and natural disaster response, and search and rescue; (2) advising the National Committee for Incident and Natural Disaster Response, and Search and Rescue to direct ministries, sectors, and localities to respond to incidents and natural disasters and conduct search and rescue operations nationwide; (3) giving advice to the National Steering Committee for Civil Defence on helping the Prime Minister direct ministries, sectors, and localities to perform civil defence work, respond to and mitigate incidents and natural disasters, and conduct search and rescue operations.

Over the past 20 years of construction, development, and maturity, the Department has successfully fulfilled its functions and assigned tasks. Notably, it has assisted the CMC, MND, National Committee for Incident and Natural Disaster Response, and Search and Rescue, and National Steering Committee for Civil Defence in developing and submitting many legal normative documents and state-level strategies, programs, projects, and plans to the Government and National Assembly for approval and issuance. It has worked with ministries, sectors, and localities to foster bilateral and multilateral cooperation and exercises on civil defence, incident, natural disaster, and epidemic response, and search and rescue with other countries on global and regional scales. More in detail, it has helped the MND give advice to the Government on directing ministries, sectors, and localities to respond to 222 storms, 84 tropical depressions, and 63,574 incidents, natural disasters, and epidemics as well as deploy 4,162,629 persons and 164,941 means from both inside and outside the Military, thereby making contributions to minimising casualties and property losses of the State, organisations, and people. Doing so has enabled the Department to build up its tradition of “Unity, Proactiveness, Overcoming Difficulties, Timeliness, Safety, Effectiveness” and the noble virtues of “Uncle Ho’s soldiers” on civil defence, incident, natural disaster, and epidemic response, and search and rescue front. Thanks to its recorded achievements, the Department has been given First-Class Fatherland Protection Order (2024), Second-Class Fatherland Protection Order (2014), and Third-Class Fatherland Protection Order (2021) by the State President; it has been honoured with 3 Emulation Flags and 8 Certificates of Merit by the Prime Minister, 8 Emulation Flags and 12 Certificates of Merit by the MND, and 6 Emulation Flags and 8 Certificates of Merit by the General Staff.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan thanks the Vietnam People’s Army for its support in February 2023

In the upcoming years, the situation on global and regional scales will have complex, unpredictable developments. Non-traditional security challenges, such as natural disasters, incidents, epidemics, environment pollution, and climate change will be on the increase and more complicated. It is predicted that Vietnam is one of the world’s most vulnerable countries to climate change. That necessitates us both adopting various measures to adapt ourselves to climate change on a global scale for the sake of sustainable development and well performing the tasks of civil defence, incident, natural disaster, and epidemic response, and search and rescue in the new situation. To that end, the Department will focus its leadership and direction on further improving its task performance, with importance attaching to well implementing several main tasks and measures as follows.

First, actively, proactively giving sound advice on civil defence, incident and natural disaster response, and search and rescue. The Department will assist the CMC, MND, General Staff, and National Steering Committee for Civil Defence in opportunely, effectively proposing strategies to bring into play the synergy of sectors, forces, and all people in well carrying out the tasks of civil defence, incident and natural disaster management, and search and rescue in all situations. To improve its staff work, the Department will continue to grasp resolutions and directives by the Party, State, CMC, and MND on civil defence, incident and natural disaster response, and search and rescue, particularly the Party Central Committee’s Resolution 22-NQ/TW dated 30 August 2022 on Civil Defence towards 2030 and beyond, the Law on Civil Defence (2023), the Law on Natural Disaster Prevention and Control (2013), and Decree on Civil Defence. At the same time, due attention will be paid to stepping up the training of cadres at all levels so that they will better their professional knowledge, skills, hands-on experience, and capabilities in situational research, analysis, and forecast to give timely, sound advice in each piece of work.

In the medium term, while giving advice on completing legal framework for civil defence, incident and natural disaster response, and search and rescue, such as guiding documents for the Law on Civil Defence (2023), National Plan and Strategy for Civil Defence, Law on the State of Emergency, and Decree detailing several articles of the Law on the State of Emergency, the Department will focus on giving advice on completing mechanisms for direction, command, and operation within the National Steering Committee for Civil Defence and all-level Commands for Civil Defence and consolidating the organisation of all-level civil defence forces in a uniform, synchronous, compact, efficient, effective manner. In addition to organising core forces in civil defence, all people will be encouraged to participate in this work. At the same time, consideration will be given to maintaining close coordination between forces and effectively mobilising resources for proactively preventing and effectively, opportunely mitigating incidents, natural disasters, and epidemics as well as conducting search and rescue operations in all situations.

Second, providing direction and guidance for offices and units to effectively perform the tasks of civil defence, incident and natural disaster response, and search and rescue in all areas. Grasping and seriously executing Prime Minister’s Decision 444/QĐ-TTg dated 23 May 2024 on issuing the Government’s Action Plan for the National Strategy for Civil Defence towards 2030 and beyond and Prime Minister’s Decision 535/QĐ-TTg dated 20 May 2023 on approving the Project to develop and improve capabilities in incident and natural response and search and rescue towards 2030, with orientation towards 2045, the Department will review, examine, and assess each unit’s performance of the tasks of civil defence, incident and natural disaster response, and search and rescue in each area, particularly in the key ones. It will provide guidance for units to formulate, supplement, and complete plans and projects for civil defence, incident and natural disaster response, and search and rescue to get prepared in advance for possible incidents, natural disasters, and epidemics. In addition to raising the quality of civil defence training and exercises and assisting ministries, sectors, and localities in directing and operating mechanisms flexibly in the event, the Department will give directions to offices and units on developing plans and projects under the “four-on-the-spot” motto in accordance with the particularities of each locality and unit.

Third, fostering international cooperation and applying science and technology to civil defence, incident and natural disaster response, and search and rescue. It is undeniable that human race has never been faced with many threats and challenges like it does today; a part from traditional security challenges, we now have to deal with a large number of natural disasters, epidemics, and environment incidents. Hence, many countries have strengthened cooperation and the sharing of information in response to those non-traditional security challenges, creating a global cooperative trend, especially after Covid-19 pandemic. Being responsible for international cooperation in this field, the Department has actively worked with ministries, sectors, and localities to foster bilateral, multilateral cooperation and exercises on civil defence, incident, natural disaster, and epidemic response, and search and rescue with other countries in the region and the world. At the same time, it has given advice to the MND on coordinating with ministries, sectors, and localities in enhancing international and regional cooperation mechanisms, such as ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), ASEAN Defence Ministers’ Meeting (ADMM), and ADMM Plus on civil defence as well as maintaining cooperation with ASEAN Militaries Ready Group in incident and natural disaster response and taking part in international exercises on search and rescue. Those cooperative mechanisms have provided the Department with more opportunities to share information and foster cooperation in training high-quality human resources and acquiring specialised, modern equipment for search and rescue, thus improving its capabilities in forecast, warning, and response to incidents, natural disasters, epidemics, and climate change.

A part from international cooperation, the Department will attach importance to applying science and technology to preventing and responding to incidents, natural disasters, and epidemics as well as conducting search and rescue operations. It will invest more in civil defence works and equipment under plans, while raising its capabilities in monitoring, analysis, forecast, and warning on incidents, natural disasters, and epidemics. To that end, it will direct the process of digitalising database on civil defence and incident, natural disaster, and epidemic prevention and response. It will also maintain coordination to develop pieces of software for natural disaster prevention and mitigation as well as for ensuring flexible, synchronous, uniform, rapid command, direction, and operation from Central to local levels in civil defence work.

Fourth, enhancing education and propagation work, improving skills in search and rescue. As incidents and catastrophes have been posing more threats to the life and assets of the State, organisations, and people, it is necessary to step up education and propagation work within both the Military and society in order to raise public awareness of search and rescue as well as laws, mechanisms, and policies on civil defence. Therefore, the Department will attach significance to disseminating knowledge of search and rescue among sectors, organisations, enterprises, and all people and providing them with guidance on practising projects for incident and catastrophe response and search and rescue relevant to each locality so that they will be capable of proactively, opportunely, effectively taking measures for incident, natural disaster, and catastrophe response in their life and production process.

Fifth, building a strong Department in terms of politics, ideology, morality, organisation, and personnel. There is a fact the Department has a small number of staff members, but it has to cope with a heavy workload in a very short period of time; hence, it is vital to build a comprehensively strong Department. To that end, the Department will require party committees and commands of its offices, boards, and centres to regularly grasp and adhere to resolutions and directives of the Party, CMC, and MND on Party building, particularly the Resolution of the 13^th Party Central Committee’s 4^th Plenum on building and rectifying the Party and political system, the 13^th Party Central Committee’s Resolution 21-NQ/TW dated 16 June 2022 on consolidating grass-roots party organisations and raising the quality of party members in the new period, and the CMC’s Resolution 847-NQ/QUTW dated 28 December 2021 on promoting the virtues of “Uncle Ho’s soldiers”, resolutely combating individualism in the new situation. At the same time, it will frequently improve leadership capacity and combat power of all-level party committees and party cells, particularly in giving advice on civil defence work, incident, natural disaster, and epidemic response as well as search and rescue operations. Emphasis will be placed on consolidating the Department’s organisational structure in an “elite, compact, strong” fashion and building a contingent of cadres with political steadfastness, pure morality, great professional competence, and professional working style. While sending its cadres to training courses both at home and abroad, the Department will increase on-the-spot training via practical activities to keep comprehensively improving its staff members’ capacity, thus contributing to mitigating incidents, natural disasters, catastrophes, and epidemics, meeting the requirements of national development and international integration in the new situation.

Lt. Gen. DOAN THAI DUC

Director of the Department