Dong Thap, a Southwestern border province, holds an important position in the general defence posture of Military Region 9. Over the past years, the Province has always been a bright spot for socio-economic development and listed in the leading group in terms of the Provincial Competitiveness Index (PCI) for more than 10 consecutive years. Its agriculture and rural sector has seen great breakthroughs. By the end of 2020, 76 out of 115 communes were recognised for meeting new rural standards. People's material and spiritual lives and social welfare have been improved. The all-people defence and all-people defence posture in association with the people's security posture are increasingly being strengthened. The Province is the first locality in the Southwestern region to complete the system of border landmarks and border patrol roads. These are the results of will, determination, effort, and wisdom of the local Party Committee, authorities, and people, in which the Provincial Armed Forces plays the key role in implementing local defence and military tasks to make an important contribution to maintaining political stability and social order and safety and creating favorable conditions for rapid and sustainable socio-economic development and promotion of international economic integration.
Thoroughly grasping the Party's lines and views, the State's policies and laws, and the superiors’ resolutions and directives on defence and military work, the Provincial Military Party Committee and Military Command have proactively advised the Provincial Party Committee and Provincial People's Committee to improve the effectiveness of leadership and direction on local defence and military tasks. Basing on the Military Command’s advice, the Province has issued and implemented multiple resolutions, directives, and plans for leading and directing the defence and military work relevant to practical situation. Thereby, the authority, responsibility for leadership and management of all levels and sectors, working relationships, and leadership, administration, and commanding mechanisms in defence and military tasks have been concretised towards tightness, consistency, and synchronisation to promote the strength of the entire political system and people. The Provincial Military Command has regularly grasped the situation, presided over, and coordinated closely with departments, branches, and localities, especially with the Border Guard and Public Security in advising the Province to develop policies and undertakings for handling issues of defence, security, and border sovereignty and security , in order not to be passive or unexpected. Particularly, in 2020, immediately after the success of the Party congresses at all levels, the Provincial Military Command and local military agencies actively advised the Party committees and authorities to develop the Action Program and defence and military plans and schemes to lead the implementation of the Party Congresses’ resolutions. Under the spirit of "Preventing the pandemic like fighting against the enemy", the Provincial Military Command has coordinated with the Provincial Border Guard, Department of Public Health, and other functional agencies in advising the Province and the Provincial Steering Committee for Covid-19 Prevention to establish five concentrated isolation points (two of which are in military bases) for 2,797 people in total. At the same time, it has directed units and localities to actively propagate and mobilise people to implement regulations on prevention and fighting against the Covid-19 and participated in investigating, tracing, and strictly managing the border to promptly prevent people from illegally crossing the border lines. At the isolation points managed by the Provincial Armed Forces, cadres and soldiers have made their efforts to overcome difficulties to serve the people enthusiastically and thoughtfully that has contributed to brightening the image of "Uncle Ho's soldiers" and earned the trust and love of the local Party Committees, authorities and people.
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| Training of a local anti-aircraft gun team |
The Provincial Military Command has also coordinated closely with functional agencies in appraising and advising the Provincial People's Committee to approve and develop strategies, planning, plans, and schemes for socio-economic development, especially foreign-invested projects in areas sensitive to defence and security to ensure that the Province can perform well the state management on this task and closely and harmoniously combine socio-economic development with strengthening defence, security and foreign affairs under the Party's guidelines. Therefore, although the investments in socio-economic development in the area are increasing rapidly, the projects in industrial parks, new urban areas, and residential clusters of the Province are all strictly managed, not to affect the military posture.
Building defensive zones is an important task of local defence work. Accordingly, the Provincial Military Command has advised the Province to accelerate the implementation of the Resolution No.28-NQ/TW of the Politburo (10th Tenure), Directive No.07-CT/TW of the Secretariat (11th Tenure), and Decree No.02/2016/NĐ-CP of the Government. Despite limited economic resources, over the past years, the Province has mobilised and invested hundreds of billions of dong in building defence works, including concentrated areas, rear bases, combat bases, headquarters, combat works, etc. to form a "continuous, solid, and in-depth" posture. Several dual-use projects and works, such as newly-built basic and modern transportation and health care systems, post and telecommunications network, etc. have been promoting their efficiency to contribute to socio-economic development and assurance for defence tasks.
In building strong political and spiritual potential and "people's-heart-and-mind posture", military agencies at all levels have actively advised and helped the local Party committees, authorities, and the Defence and Security Education Council to strictly implement the Defence and Security Education Law and put the work into order. The Provincial Military Command has directed military agencies at all levels to coordinate with relevant departments and branches in reviewing, classifying, and developing education and fostering plans as decentralised. In the process of implementation, the Province has expanded the fostered objects to religious dignitaries and positions, prestigious people among ethnic minorities, people in border areas, business owners, etc. In the 2015 - 2020 period, the Province held defence and security courses for 1,285 Class-3 objects; 26,423 Class-4 objects, 873 dignitaries, tens of thousands of workers, business owners, teachers, militia and self-defence members, and reservists, and more than 202,100 students, that was highly appreciated by the Central and Military Region Defence and Security Education Councils.
In addition, the Provincial Armed Forces have also promoted their role of a "working army" in actively adhering to the grassroots to carry out the mass mobilisation work with diverse forms and methods suitable for each object. Notably, they have deployed the "Military – civilian Tet" model and achieved practical results. The model has been implemented in combination with socio-political organisations and localities to make it a regular activity aimed at organising the spring festival while taking care of building material facilities, developing production, and improving people’s lives. Thereby, it has created a strong spillover effect so that all resources among the people have been promoted, and the face of rural and urban areas in the Province has been increasingly flourishing to make the people more confident in the Party and the Government and the solidarity between the Army and the people more attached.
Concentrating on building strong armed forces is an important content that determines the performance of local defence and military tasks. Accordingly, the Provincial Military Command has directed agencies and units to concentrate on consolidating the staffing organisation to suit with the functions and tasks of each force towards "lean, compact, and powerful" with priority given to ensuring troops for combat readiness units and those on border lines and key areas for defence and security. First of all, it has focused on building the standing force towards "revolution, regularity, elite, and gradual modernisation" and stepping up the renovation of training contents, programs, and methods with new contents added to suit with the characteristics of border and river delta provinces. In particular, it has attached importance to improving the quality of training and drills of defensive area combat, security operations, and natural disaster prevention and control, and search and rescue. The militia and self-defense forces have been built under the motto of "strong and widespread" with high political quality and reasonable structure and composition suitable to local characteristics. In the process of implementation, the Provincial Military Command has required the units to associate political education and military training with regular order building, discipline training, and maintenance and observance of the regulations on combat readiness. In addition, the Provincial Military Command has also actively coordinated with functional agencies in promoting defence foreign affairs to help a number of Cambodian localities in the fields of health, education, and rural development, infrastructure, etc. that has contributed to deepening the Vietnam - Cambodia solidarity and friendship, maintaining political security, social order, and safety, and building the border of peace, friendship, cooperation, and mutual development.
The above-mentioned results are the premise for Dong Thap Provincial Armed Forces to continue implementing the defence and military work to contribute to making the Province wealthy, culturally and socially developed, and strong in terms of defence and security, and dynamic in the process of development and integration.
Senior Colonel NGUYEN HUU CUONG, Member of the Provincial Party Committee Standing Commission, Commander of the Provincial Military Command