Acutely aware of the core role in managing and protecting seas, islands, and continental shelf in the South, the Naval Region 4’s Party Committee and Command have always focused on building strong affiliated offices and units politically as the basis for improving the Regions’ synergy and combat strength and making it capable of fulfilling that weighty but glorious responsibility.

The Region is tasked with performing the training work, maintaining combat readiness, protecting Cam Ranh Military Base, safeguarding the national sovereignty over seas and islands (including the Truong Sa Islands), assisting fishers at sea, and ensuring the safety of economic activities in the area of its responsibility. To meet the requirements for the Homeland defence in the new situation, the Region has been directly modernised. Thus, in order to achieve a breakthrough in raising the synergy and combat strength, the Region’s Party Committee and Command have thoroughly grasped the Party’s guidelines on building the armed forces, while focusing on making the Region politically strong as a routine, central task.

Rear Admiral Nguyen Duc Vuong addressing the Conference to review the Determination to Win Emulation Movement of 2019

First of all, the Region’s Party Committee and Command have attached great importance to raising the quality of political education and making all cadres and soldiers absolutely loyal to the Party, the State, and the people and ready to sacrifice their life for the sea and island sovereignty. Offices and units within the Region have actively rendered their cadres and soldiers fully aware of the importance and potential of the sea, with emphasis placed on the Vietnam’s Marine Strategy, the Law of the Sea of Vietnam, and their units’ particularities, situation, and task requirements. In the process, great value has been attached to providing information about the situation and task, opportunely orientating troops’ ideology against new, complex issues, and creating a consensus among troops. At the same time, consideration has been given to educating the tradition and virtues of “Uncle Ho’s soldiers - naval soldiers,” building troops’ political qualities, pure morality, and healthy lifestyle, and making them capable of proactively handling difficulties, maintaining vigilance, and effectively fighting against the hostile forces’ “peaceful evolution” strategy and violations of seas, islands, and continental shelf under their management.

The Region’s Party Committee has directed units to flexibly employ various forms of education, create a breakthrough in performing the party and political work, and effectively implement the Project on “renewing political education at military units in the new period” in accordance with units’ task requirements and their cadres and soldiers’ educational backgrounds. The Region has asked its affiliates to design enquiry-based lectures, apply information technology to lectures, draw up political study outlines and manuals for units performing task at sea, and  closely combine basic political education with regular, tradition, legal education, discipline management, and military standard order building. In this regard, significance has been attached to special topics, news briefings, politico-spiritual meetings, newspaper reading and radio listening sessions, forums, and dialogues. Due regard has been paid to strictly maintaining the Politico-Spiritual Day, the Legal Day, and the order for ideological management so as to have a direct effect on cadres and soldiers’ awareness and ideology. At the same time, units across the Region have closely aligned education, persuasion, and encouragement with administrative methods in order to make a huge positive change in cadres and soldiers’ ideology and action and build their political zeal and determination to undertake and fulfil all assigned missions. The work of political education has been frequently, continuously carried out. Units have closely cooperated with local party committees, authorities, and unions and families in grasping their cadres and soldiers’ ideology. As a result, all cadres and soldiers of the Region have kept their mind on their work. They have always undertaken and successfully fulfilled all tasks, maintained vigilance, and well handled situations at sea under our Party and State’s viewpoints and guidelines.

An artistic program by the Regiment 101’s Youth Union and the Cam Lam District’s Youth Union, Khanh Hoa Province

The Region’s Party Committee and Command have frequently paid due attention to making the all-level party committees and organisations politically, ideologically, organisationally, and morally strong and raising the quality of cadres and party members. To that end, emphasis has been placed on grasping and stringently executing the 12^th Party Central Committee’s Resolution No.4 on the Party building and rectification, the 12^th Politburo’s Directive 05-CT/TW on studying and emulating Ho Chi Minh’s ideology, ethics, and lifestyle, and the Navy’s Party Committee’s Resolution 5863 on enhancing the grass-roots level party organisations’ leadership and combativeness and the quality of cadres and party members. Great value has been attached to renewing and improving Party meetings, particularly at party cells, enhancing the capacity to develop, grasp, and implement resolutions, heightening self-criticism and criticism, and strictly executing the Grass-Roots Level Democracy Regulations. Party committees and organisations under the Region’s Party Organisation have well implemented the preset breakthroughs, built 4-good party cells, educated and managed cadres and party members’ morality, lifestyle, and responsibility, heightened key cadres’ role model-setting responsibility, and upheld the principles of democratic centralism, collective leadership, and individual accountability. Great weight has been added to resolutely fighting against wrong viewpoints, degradation in political ideology, ethics, and lifestyle as well as the signs of “self-evolution” and “self-transformation.” Due regard has been paid to stepping up the work of inspection and supervision, advocating that “supervision must be extended while inspection must be focalised,” proactively inspecting party members and organisations with the signs of discipline violation, and opportunely, strictly dealing with letters of denunciation right at the grass-roots level. Under the Navy’s Party Committee’s Resolution 1348 on “building a contingent of naval cadres to meet the task requirements in the new situation,” the Region’s Party Committee and Command have frequently reviewed affiliated units’ organisational structure and correctly assessed the quality of party committee members and key cadres within offices, units, fleets, vessels, and islands as the basis for personnel planning, use, training, and appointment. They have continued to streamline the organisational structure, consolidated party committees and cells, and carefully prepared the personnel plans for the all-level party committees for the 2020-2025 tenure.

The Region’s Party Committee and Command have concentrated on building strong affiliated offices and units politically and executing the Determination to Win Emulation Movement, particularly in the performance of their central political missions. This is an important measure for improving cadres and soldiers’ qualities and combat resolve. Thus, units have always strictly maintained the order for training, combat readiness, patrol, and combat duty as well as daily, weekly and monthly regulations so as to raise troops’ self-awareness in study, training, and performance of their tasks. Besides, the Region has enhanced inspections of combat readiness and synchronously maintained combat readiness forces and means. Realising the Navy’s breakthrough in “raising the effectiveness of sea control and management and the quality of the staff work,” the Region has paid special attention to maintaining its combat readiness forces practically, conducting patrols and making reconnaissance to grasp the situation and give advice to higher echelons in order to avoid passivity. At sea, there have been many cadres and soldiers who have resolutely fought and sacrificed their life for defending the country’s sacred sea and island sovereignty.

Following the training motto of “basics, practicality, and thorough grasp” and implementing the Navy’s breakthrough in “mastering weapons and technical equipment and ensuring safety,” the Region has set a breakthrough in “improving the quality of basic training, personnel training, and foreign language training,” while considering the defence of national sea and island sovereignty and the building of a revolutionary, regular, elite, and modern Region as the training targets. The Region has launched many emulation movements as the basis for collectives and individuals’ brilliant task performance. Typical examples, such as “good training and combat readiness,” “practice makes perfect,” and “passionate in training, regardless of harsh weather,” have encouraged cadres and soldiers to surmount difficulties and quickly master modern weapons, technical equipment, and means. As a result, all cadres and soldiers of the Region have always heightened their responsibility to overcome hardships and successfully fulfil their assigned mission.

As naval soldiers frequently work far away from home and in the difficult and dangerous conditions, the Region’s Party Committee and Command have closely combined the ideological work with the policy work and kept ensuring policies for their troops’ families. Rank promotion, pay increase, appointment, commendation, and disciplinary action have been in accordance with the regulations and in a democratic, equal, and public manner. Due attention has been paid to ensuring troops’ mental and material life on national holidays. Policies and entitlements for soldiers and their families have been executed under the regulations and in accordance with units’ practical conditions. The Region’s Party Committee and Command have directed competent offices to closely cooperate with local authorities and social unions in helping soldiers’ families in difficult circumstances, constructing houses of comradeship, providing financial assistance for soldiers and their relatives with life-threatening diseases, visiting families under preferential treatment policy, and making donations to soldiers’ families affected by natural disasters. Doing so has helped generate spiritual motivations for cadres and soldiers to keep their mind on their units and work, readily undertake and successfully fulfil all assigned tasks to deserve the sentiment and faith of the Party, the State, and the people.

Rear Admiral Nguyen Duc Vuong

Commissar of the Naval Region 4