Grasping the Party’s military-defence guidelines, over the years, the province of Hoa Binh has been synchronously, drastically adopting measures to increase its defence potential as the basis for successfully fulfilling the two strategic tasks of national construction and protection.

Hoa Binh province is located in the Northwest, acting as the western gateway of Hanoi Capital City, possessing many roads and waterways convenient for transport and economic development, together with a lot of natural caves and heights of military values in the Western - Northwestern direction. Being fully aware of the province’s position, over the years, in addition to boosting socio-economic development, the Provincial Party Committee and People’s Committee have always focused their leadership and direction on performing the military-defence work, making the all-people national defence and the people’s security increasingly strong, and especially increasing types of defence potential.

First of all, the province has directed all-level party committees and authorities to grasp resolutions and directives by the Party and the State on the military-defence work, particularly the 11^th Party Central Committee’s Resolution No.8 on “the Strategy to defend the Homeland in the new situation,” the 10^th Politburo’s Resolution 28-NQ/TW, dated September 22^nd, 2008, and the Decree 21/2019/NĐ-CP, dated February 22^nd, 2019 by the Government on defensive zones. Grounded on those documents, due regard has been paid to designing and issuing resolutions and directives on this work in accordance with the province’s condition and identifying all-level party committees and authorities’ leadership and direction method, sectors’ function and task, and all people’s responsibility in the building of all-people national defence and people’s security.

Additionally, the province has focused on building the politico-spiritual potential and especially the people’s faith in the Party and the State. In this regard, the province has directed localities to build pure, strong party organisations and comprehensively strong political bases. Under the 12^th Party Central Committee’s Resolution 18-NQ/TW, dated October 25^th, 2017 on “continued renovation and arrangement of the political system’s apparatus in a compact, efficient, effective manner” and the Resolution 19-NQ/TW on “continued renovation of the organisational system and improvement of the quality and efficiency of public non-business units,” the Provincial Party Committee Standing Board has developed the specialised Resolution on “raising the quality of the political system” and the Action Programme for the Party Central Committee’s Resolutions No.18 and No.19. To that end, it has set a breakthrough in raising party organisations’ leadership and combativeness and streamlining the political system’s apparatus. At the same time, due attention has been paid to realising the programme on improving the political system’s efficiency and effectiveness, boosting socio-economic development, and ensuring defence and security within the two communes of Hang Kia and Pa Co (Mai Chau district), building 21 cultural villages and hamlets, and raising the quality of state management of national defence at grass-roots level.

Great value has been attached to educating party members, locals, and the armed forces on the military-defence task and the Homeland protection, while defence and security education has been provided for all cadres and citizens. Due regard has been paid to ensuring policies for the Army Rear, helping the people with economic development, hunger eradication, and poverty reduction, well implementing the movements, namely “all people unite in building cultural lifestyle in residential areas” and “all people unite in building new-style countryside and civilised urban areas,” giving financial support for students, providing vocational training for rural and ethnic minority labour, and completely handling letters of complaint and denunciation right at grass-roots level, thereby achieving a consensus amongst authorities and locals on policies of the Party and the State.

Also, the province has concentrated on increasing economic, scientific, and technology potential to create material resources for national defence. It has drastically, synchronously taken measures to exploit its potential and strengths for socio-economic development, while introducing policies on mobilising economic sectors’ resources to develop facilities, industrial clusters, and handicraft villages, create employments, increase locals’ income, reduce poverty, and maintain political stability at grass-roots level. It has mobilised and effectively used investments in traffic, information, telecommunications, and irrigation infrastructures and applied technologies to production as an incentive to speed up economic growth and increase defence potential. As a result, in recent years, the province’s economic growth has always been high. The projects on socio-economic development in Hoa Binh city, Luong Son district, and northern Lac Thuy, industrial zones and clusters of Luong Son, Phu Thanh, Lac Thuy, and Song Da, hydropower plants, the projects on mining and afforestation, the bridges of Trang, Hoa Binh 1, and Hoa Binh 2, the route connecting the national highway No.6 with Chi Lang road, the route between Hoa Lac and Hoa Binh city, the provincial roads No.433 and No.435, and the inter-district road between Lac Son and Tan Binh have served both socio-economic development and defence-security task. Moreover, the province has stepped up the building of new-style countryside and combat villages and communes within its defensive zones, while actively implementing the national target programmes on education, training, health, labour, and sustainable poverty reduction within communes under the programme CT229 and along the Da river.

Leaders of the province and the Provincial Military Command inspecting training equipment for 2021

Military potential is a core part of defence potential in which building solid defensive zones and strong local armed forces plays a key role. Thus, over the years, the province has focused on completing the plan to use defence land in the periods of 2011-2015 and 2016-2020 and the project on defensive zones’ military posture in the period of 2016-2020, while adjusting the master plan for defence disposition and socio-economic development towards 2030. Grounded on those plans, it has actively mobilised resources to construct defensive works, with priority given to essential works within combat bases, rear bases, and key defensive areas. In this regard, due attention has been paid to taking advantage of terrains to save funding. At the same time, the province has strictly maintained the mechanism of leadership over the building and operation of defensive zones, regularly consolidated organisations within defensive zones, particularly the Steering Board on building defensive zones, and promoted the core role of Military and Public Security offices in counselling, managing, and appraising socio-economic development projects and programes relating to defensive zones’ military posture.

The province has closely exercised its leadership and direction over the building of politically, ideologically, and organisationally strong local armed forces, with priority given to making units tasked with manoeuvre and combat readiness and a contingent of military and public security cadres comprehensively strong. At the same time, it has effectively implemented plans and projects on the militia and self-defence force, the reserve force, military call-up, and military university entrance examination. Besides, it has formulated, adjusted, completed, closely practised the system of combat documents, plans for coordination between the Military and the Public Security Force under the Government’s Decree 03/2019/NĐ-CP as well as plans on defence mobilisation, people’s air defence, natural disaster and forest fire prevention and control, search and rescue. Between 2015 and 2020, the province accomplished all provincial and district-level defensive zone exercises and commune-level combat drills. Via such operations, local armed forces’ synergy has been raised, while party committees and authorities’ capacity to deal with defence-security situations has been improved.

In the upcoming time, a part from advantages, the province will be confronted with a lot of difficulties in building national defence potential. Natural disasters and epidemics, particularly the COVID-19 will continue to be complicated and unpredictable. The hostile forces will enhance their “peaceful evolution” strategy and promote “self-evolution” and “sell-transformation” from within to threaten political security and social order and safety. To keep effectively building national defence potential for the Homeland protection in the new situation, the Provincial Party Committee Standing Board will continue grasping the Party’s military-defence guidelines, executing its Action Programme for the Resolutions of the 13^th National Party Congress and the 16^th Provincial Party Congress in line with the 12^th Politburo’s Conclusion 64-KL/TW, dated October 30^th, 2019 on stepping up the implementation of the 10^th Politburo’s Resolution 28-NQ/TW and the 12^th Politburo’s Conclusion 57-KL/TW on combining defence and security with economy and vice versa, while making the all-people national defence and the people’s security increasingly strong in terms of potential, force, and posture. Significance will be attached to enhancing state management of national defence, well carrying out the work of defence and security education, and building a strong political system as the basis for performing the military-defence work. Due attention will be paid to sustainably boosting socio-economic development closely combined with defence and security and actively mobilising resources for the Project on building provincial defensive zones in the period of 2020-2025. Emphasis will be placed on making the armed forces politically, ideologically, and organisationally strong with a high level of synergy and combat strength. Besides, consideration will be given to well organising defensive zone exercises at all levels, departments and sectors’ drills, and anti-terrorism manoeuvres in order to improve party committees and authorities’ leadership and management capacity, the advisory role perform by military and public security offices and other agencies, and the armed forces’ combat readiness. Last but not least, great value will be attached to stepping up the work of inspection and supervision to handle violations relating to defence and security, commending, rewarding, and multiplying effective, creative models and approaches to ensure that economic growth will help strengthen defence and security potential.

NGO VAN TUAN, Member of the Party Central Committee, Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee