Building strong defence and security potentials is our Party and State’s strategic policy to promptly mobilise all resources for firmly defending the Fatherland in wartime, maintaining political security and social order and safety in peacetime, and creating favourable conditions for socio-economic development. This is also a basic content as determined in the Resolution of District 10 Party Committee (the 12^th Tenure) for the 2020 - 2025 term.

The District's Secretary encourages new recruits

District 10, one of the central districts of Ho Chi Minh City, has a revolutionary tradition with multiple “red” addresses, including District 10 Martyr Memorial Stele, Vuon Lai, Tran Phu, etc. Due to its large-size and high-density population and economic, investment, trade, services, and tourism activities that involve sensitive foreign elements and are taking place actively, the District’s building up of defence potential is mixed with both advantages and disadvantages. A big challenge is that a part of cadres and Party members, especially those at the grassroots level and enterprises, have inadequate awareness of defence and security tasks and are only focusing on pure economic development, etc. In addition, it is also facing the fierce resistance of the hostile forces through their strategies of “Peaceful evolution” and the promotion of “self-development” and “self-transformation” in the area by several increasingly sophisticated and venomous conspiracies. In this context, the District Military Party Committee Standing Commission has always considered strengthening the defence capacity as a task that is not only urgent and immediate but also fundamental and long-term. The Resolution of the District 10 Party Committee Congress (the 12^th Tenure), defined to “Strengthen defence and security potentials, build an all-people defence associated with a strong people's security posture in line with the socio-economic development of the District, and build a solid defensive area”. Accordingly, the District has focused on leading and directing the Party committees and organizations at all levels to thoroughly communicate the cadres, Party members, armed forces, and all classes of people and, at the same time, build action plans and implement them with many drastic and synchronous solutions to well perform this important task.

Building the political - spiritual potentials has been defined by the District Party Committee as the central content in building defence potentials. To do this, the District has focused on building Party organisations and governments at all levels to be clean and strong in terms of politics, thoughts, organisation, and ethics with leadership capacity, combat power, and management and administration ability on par with the task. The Party commissions and committees at all levels have paid much attention to improving the quality and mode of leadership, especially the ability to grasp the superiors’ resolutions and issue their own resolutions and developing realistic, creative, feasible, grassroots-oriented, and real action plans to overcome “credit-driven practice”. It has also continued synchronously implementing groups of tasks and solutions to effectively implement the 4^th Central Resolution (the 11^th and 12^th Tenures) on Party building and rectification in association with Directive No.05-CT/TW of the Politburo (12^th Tenure) on learning and following Ho Chi Minh thoughts, ethics, and style; seriously and strictly implementing Decision No.1649-QĐ/QU dated August 7^th, 2013 by the District Party Committee Standing Commission on the Party members’ learning regime; and focusing on renovating and improving the quality of political education to make the Marxist-Leninist theory, Ho Chi Minh thoughts, the Party's guidelines and views become the foundation of thoughts and political zeal for all cadres and Party members. Concurrently, it has actively fought against wrong and hostile views to maintain the Party's ideological ground.

Besides, it has built a strong government which is truly the government of the people, by the people, and for the people with sufficient prestige and capacity of comprehensive management and administration and stepped up to implement the administrative reform; streamline and consolidate the state apparatus; promote the role of leading cadres and civil servants; promote socialist democracy and well implement the Grassroots Democracy Regulations to ensure the people's real ownership under the motto that “People know; people discuss; people do; people inspect; people supervise; and people enjoy”; strengthen the great national unity block; and attach importance to promoting and developing traditional cultural values and creating a social spiritual foundation and endogenous strength for the cause of building and defending the Fatherland.

The District Military Party Committee Standing Commission has attached special importance to leading and directing the implementation of education and fostering of national defence and security knowledge for all objects, that has contributed to fostering patriotism and national pride and raising awareness and sense of responsibility for cadres, Party members, and masses towards the cause of defence consolidation and protection of the Fatherland. The District Party Committee and District People's Committee have actively issued legal documents to lead, direct, and operate uniformly and synchronously and consolidated the National Defence and Security Education Council to ensure the appropriate structure, quality, and operational order. At the same time, they have promoted the role of military agencies at all levels in advising and organising the implementation; and expanded the fostering objects and actively renewed educational programs and contents towards quality and efficiency to make it suitable with each object, especially for the younger generation. In the 2015 - 2020 term, the District held nearly 100 defence and security courses for all objects with over 12,000 turns of cadres, civil servants, public employees, and dignitaries and nearly 25,000 students in the area.

Grasping the Party's viewpoint that economic development must create material and technical resources for national defence, the District has deployed groups of solutions to promote in-depth and sustainable economic growth with focus on trade and services; to step up economic restructuring, renovate a modern, diversified, and high-class commercial model, and produce clean technology; and to enhance competitiveness and international integration, of which importance has been attached to services, tourism development, promotion of scientific and technological application, and creative and practical innovation. In the 2015 - 2019 period, the District established 8,450 new businesses, and its trade - service growth rate reached 17.9%/year. Meanwhile, the state budget revenue increased by more than 13%/year, and the local budget revenue increased nearly 17%/year. In the immediate future, to minimize the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, the District focuses on implementing measures to support businesses and workers who are affected by the pandemic, solve difficulties for production and business, and perform tasks of socio-economic development and social security and safety assurance for the people. At the same time, it drastically performs the “dual task” of preventing the pandemic and developing socio-economic conditions in the “new normal” conditions.

The core factor of the defence potentials is the military potential which consists of the combat power of the armed forces and the military posture in the defensive area. Accordingly, the District has consolidated the staffing of military agencies at all levels towards streamlining, compactness, and synchronization and improved qualifications, capacity, and efficiency of advising the Party committees and governments on defence and local military work and state management over national defence. The units have promoted innovation and improvement of training quality; adhered and well implemented the motto of “Basics, practice, and firmness”; and closely combined with discipline training, regular construction, and strict maintenance of combat readiness at all levels. Training and drills have been associated with combat plans in the area, especially plans for preventing and fighting against riots, terrorism, and civil defense. Along with building the strong armed forces, the District has focused on leading the construction of the military posture of a continuous, solid, in-depth defence area under the National Defence Assurance Project for the construction of the District defensive area in the 2015 - 2020 period, with a vision to 2030 within the City’s defensive posture. Leaders of the Military and Public Security agencies have strengthened coordination to operate under the Government's Decree No.03/2019/NĐ-CP issued on September 5^th, 2019, ensuring political security, order, and safety in the area. At the same time, they have supplemented and completed defence, combat - administration plans, military posture planning of defensive areas, and plans for reservation and mobilisation of technical facilities for defence and security tasks to meet the requirements of tasks in all situations.

Firmly grasping the Party's viewpoints and guidelines and the State's policies and laws, especially the 8^th Central Resolution (the 11^th Tenure) on the Strategy for protection of the Fatherland in the new situation, District 10 continues to promote building of strong defence potentials to contribute to making Ho Chi Minh City developed in economy and strong in defence and security.

DANG QUOC TOAN, MA., Secretary of the District Party Committee