Grasping the viewpoints and guidelines of the Party on Fatherland protection, so far, together with strengthening socio-economic development, the province of Ha Nam has also focused on leading, directing and thoroughly implementing the local defence and military tasks, consolidating the all people’s defence, and the all people’s defence posture associated with the people’s security posture in which developing a strong and widespread militia and self-defence forces has been paid due attention by the province and carried out with various realistic and effective measures.

First, the province attaches importance to improving the efficacy and effectiveness of leadership, direction and operation of party committee and authorities of all echelons over the development of the militia and self-defence forces. Grasping the Directive No. 16-CT/TW of the Politburo (IX tenure) on “Strengthening the leadership of the Party over the militia, self-defence and the reserve forces in the new situation”, the Law on Militia and Self-defence, the documents and instructions of superiors and military offices, the Provincial Military Command has promoted its key role, coordinated with other departments, sectors and districts to give recommendations to the Provincial Party Committee, People’s Council and People’s Committee on promulgating documents guiding the development of the militia and self-defence forces suitable with the locality. Notable, the Provincial Military Command has advised the Provincial People’s Committee to issue and implement the Project No. 1123 on the “Establishment, operation and policy for the militia and self-defence forces in the 2016 – 2021 period” and directed the military offices of districts to give advice to the local party committees, authorities, agencies and businesses on the guidelines and measures for building the militia and self-defence forces suitably with the local features and the plans for broadening these forces in certain defence status. Thereby, it has created unification in awareness and responsibility, the involvement of the whole political system, promoting the synergy of the entire people in the implementation of this important mission.

A live-firing test of Kim Bang District's militia

Adhering to the viewpoints and guidelines of the Party on building the people’s armed forces and the laws on militia and self-defence forces, the Provincial Military Command has synchronously carried out a number of measures for building the appropriate quantity, structure, component for the forces with increasingly high overall quality, particularly political ethic. To that end, the province has directed the military offices to actively screen and manage the conscription registration of citizens for militia and self-defence service. Implementing the direction of the province, the districts have paid attention to building the widespread militia and self-defence forces, particularly the mobile militia, and self-defence force in agencies and businesses to suit the particularities of the province. So far, implementing the goal of economic development, the province has planned and built several industrial zones, attracting a large number of enterprises both domestic and overseas, and tens of thousands of workers. This is a huge potential for building the self-defence force. However, due to both subjective and objective reasons, the establishment of self-defence force, especially in foreign-owned enterprises is facing difficulties. To deal with the situation, the Provincial Military Command has coordinated with the Business Party Committee and the industrial zone management units to carry out measures for establishing party organizations in businesses as a basis for establishing the self-defence units. By this way, in 2018, the province established 3 self-defence units in the foreign-owned enterprises based in Phu Ly city and Duy Tien districts. This is a premise for the province to continue to expand and maintain the operation of the self-defence force in businesses in the coming time.

Fully aware of the role of the military officers in building, training and in the operation of the militia and self-defence forces, the Provincial Military Command has advised the province’s leaders to direct the localities to nurture the contingent of cadres of commune military commands. To meet the requirements, they are subject to training in expertise and political theory, restructuring and standardization. As a result, they are performing well their role in the implementation of defence and military tasks and in developing the militia and self-defence forces at grassroots level. In order to further enhance their capability and not to waste the budget and human resource after training, in the coming time, the province will screen and grasp the real demand of each locality to build financial plans for training. Furthermore, some of them will be chosen to attend further education at military schools, such as the Military College No. 1, the Military School under the MR3, etc.

In addition, the province has also attached importance to improving the training quality for the militia and self-defence forces and regarded this as a breakthrough in the development of these forces. Annually, prior to each training season, the province directs its localities to make careful preparations in human resource, material, and training fields; hold training for cadres of the commune military commands and militia units. In 2019, the province held 12 training courses for nearly 1,230 cadres, accounting for over 99% of the cadres in charge of the militia and self-defence with good results.

 For the training to be highly effective, the province combines military training with political, legal training and skills for mass mobilization. It has also held festivals, contest, combat readiness alert, and exercises with the participation of the militia and self-defence forces, etc. This has contributed to nurturing and improving the level of combat readiness and the coordination capability for officers and soldiers. At present, it is difficult to gather trainees for concentrated training in most of the localities. As for Ha Nam, the majority of its militia and self-defence forces work in the business sector where time allowance is tight. To ease the problem, the Provincial Military Command has directed its junior military commands to actively inform their plans of training to businesses early so that they can make arrangement for their employees to attend. By these measures, there are always a large number of trainees attending the trainings of localities. 100% of trainees pass the tests, including 74.5% good and excellent results.

The operations of the militia and self-defence forces are always put under strict control and direction of the province and localities. The contents and models of the operations are made relevant to the features and missions of the areas. The militia and self-defence forces of the localities have strengthened coordination with friendly forces in accordance with the Decree No. 133/2015/NĐ-CP of the Government, especially the Public Security force in patrolling and guarding the political security, social safety and order. They are one of the pioneers in the prevention and control of natural disasters and rural renovation. They have made many meaningful models of operation and built useful projects, contributing to beautifying the countryside, such as the flower road model of the militia and self-defence forces in Thanh Liem district which is highly appreciated by the people. In the coming time, when the regular polices of the Public Security force are deployed to the communes under the Resolution No. 22-NQ/TW of the Politburo (XII tenure), the Provincial Military Command will have recommendation to the province’s leaders on directing the localities to prepare the suitable contents and measures for further enhancing the coordination to maintain political security, social safety and order of localities.

The province has also paid attention to the policies for the militia and self-defence forces. Sticking to the regulations of the Law on Militia and Self-defence, the province has concretized the allowance for the forces in accordance with the Project 1123. Despite limited budget, the localities have managed to build working place for 100% of the commune military command, contributing to enhance the operation of the forces.

With the synchronous implementation of the above measures, the militia and self-defence forces of Ha Nam province have been made strong and widespread, becoming the key force in performing the local military and defence tasks, making significant contribution to the protection of political security, social safety and order and the province’s development.

Senior Colonel Luong Van Thang, Deputy Commander cum Chief of Staff of the Provincial Military Command