The Military Rest and Recuperation Centre No. 16 (Unit 16), under Military Region 1 is in charge of serving rest and recuperation for military personnel at all levels; at the same time, being ready to serve conferences, seminars, trainings, sports festivals and contests held by the Ministry of National Defence, the Military Region’d Command, and local military agencies and units.

In recent years, though facing a number of difficulties, such as the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, the large area of responsibility, and the limited number of staff, etc., the Party committee and commander of the Unit have closely followed the tasks and realities of the Unit to lead, direct, and improve the quality of serving in all aspects; in which, attention has been paid to improving the quality of service. Annually, the Unit receives and serves nearly 10,000 military personnel and their family members, serving dozens of conferences, seminars, meetings, and being appreciated by guests, leaders, and local authorities in thoughtful and respectful manner. For 3 consecutive years (from 2020 to 2022), the Unit has been awarded the Emulation Flag of the Command of Military Region 1.

That achievement is the outcome of different factors, including: Firstly, the Unit has focused on raising awareness and responsibility of officers and employees for its core political task. As a service unit, the consciousness, responsibility, spirit, and attitude of the staff are the most important content, deciding the results of mission accomplishment of the Unit. Therefore, the Unit has regularly grasped resolutions, directives, work plans of superiors, guiding documents on professional work; on that basis, it has conducted education to raise the sense of responsibility for staff, encouraged them to try their utmost for the fulfilment of working targets and the improvement of services. In order to get high educational result, importance has been attached to improving contents, forms and methods of propaganda and education; closely combining basic education with regular training, professional training with traditional education; upholding the exemplary role of officers and party members, promoting the role of the Party organisations, the commander, the masses and the discipline practice and activeness of each personnel. Every year, the Unit orders 100% of its officers and party members to develop a striving and training plan, clearly understanding their work target and periodically revising and drawing lessons. Along with fostering education, emphasis has been placed on strengthening regularity, managing and practicing strict discipline, regularly attaching importance to building and maintaining internal solidarity, the Army and the people unity, and properly settling the relationship between the collectives and individuals, and between the commander and his subordinates. In addition, the Unit has taken care of the staff’s material and spiritual life, successfully conducted policy work, thus creating a high consensus among officers and employees. As a result, officers, soldiers and employees of the Unit always stay committed to their work, uphold their tasks well, be enthusiastic, and striving their best for the success of the unit.

Awarding outstanding staff of 2022

Secondly, creating new breakthroughs, improving the quality of professional work. The unit has considered it a regular and continuous task in order to improve the quality of service under the motto "welcome when guests arrive, dedicated service while guests are staying, and attentive taken care when guests leave". Thoroughly understanding that spirit, officers and employees of the Unit have always shown considerate, thoughtful, cultural and respectful attitude and responsibility; carrying out administrative procedures quickly, to the right subjects, with dedicated and meticulous instructions; timely disseminating, publicising the allowances, ensuring clean and tidy rooms, and having different menus for different guests coming from different regions of the country. Moreover, guests have been provided with dedicated and responsible services, with the assurance of favourable conditions for their staying.

Facing with the fact that market prices are fluctuating, and the quality of foods is difficult to control, the Unit has actively selected and signed contracts with reputable food suppliers, with priority being given to local products in order to reduce input costs.

In addition, in order to improve the quality of meals for those who come for rest and recuperation, the Unit has regularly publicised the allowances, menu, conducted food samples storing, strictly supervised food inputs and food processing procedures to ensure healthy and safe service; actively improved and changed dishes, ensuring that they have good taste and meet the requirements of guests. As a result, in recent years, the Unit has ensured healthy and safe food for all guests, especially for officers who come for rest and duty, making good impressions to the guests.

Along with that, the Unit has mobilised its potentials to build and renovate the landscape of the barracks to make it a regular, bright, green, clean, scenic, civilised, and modern nice one; upgrading facilities, such as: rest rooms, dining rooms, halls, lakeside villas, recreation facilities, canoes to make them synchronous, convenient and safe, meeting the demands of both military personnel and their family members.

Due to the limited number of employees, the Unit has encouraged boat crews cum guides for visitors to learn about local history, geography, culture, and people of Nui Coc Lake and the legend of the Cong river and Coc mountain, so as to affirm and promote the values and cultural identity of Thai Nguyen land - a resistance base with its rich revolutionary traditions, hospitable people and beautiful landscape, with vigorous economic development. In order to constantly improve service quality, along with thorough and meticulous preparation and inspection of each stage, step, ..., the Unit has always focused on taking care of the guests, considering them family members, creating a warm and humanity atmosphere, that is appreciated by the guests and commanders.

Thirdly, importance has been paid to fostering and building a contingent of officers and employees, meeting the requirements of the tasks. Given that most of the Unit’s officers and employees are concurrently in charge of different tasks, with limited professional training, so in order to successfully complete the assigned tasks, the Unit has strengthened the professional training for its staff. Every year, the Unit sends officers and employees to participate in professional training courses organised by the Department of Personnel – the General Department of Politics and training courses on tourism skills of the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Thai Nguyen province. In addition, the studying visits to other military rest and recuperation centres and other tourist establishments have been held to help staff learn practical experience, then, transferring these lessons to other officers and employees of the Unit by directly guide them in their daily practice. The contents of this training focus on the reception, guidance, arrangement and accommodation for guests of the reception section; cleaning room, serving food, ensuring food hygiene and safety, disease prevention and control, etc. for housekeeping, foodservice and hotel kitchen staff; the maintaining work of technical staff, and the work of taking care and cutting plants, improving the Unit’s landscape and environmental sanitation of environmental staff, etc.

In addition, the Unit’s Party committee and commander have actively managed to consolidate the organisation and staffing, associating planning work with training and assigning tasks to officers; actively select good officers and employees to send to other training facilities inside and outside the Army. Thanks to the good job training, though the staff is not qualified, the Unit has fulfilled its assigned tasks.

Fourthly, promoting emulation and commendation activities, creating motivation to motivate the Unit to complete its tasks. On the basis of the emulation movements, and peak emulation campaigns launched by the Ministry of National Defence, Military Region, and local administration, the Party committee and commander of the Unit have concretised into its contents and targets that are relevant to the characteristics of the unit's tasks. Importance has been attached to building motivation, improving the sense of responsibility and determination to fulfill the targets, promoting the dynamism and creativity of each branch and individual in the implementation of the movement; identifying and replicating typical examples, good people and good deeds. Combining the implementation of emulation movements with the promotion of studying and following Ho Chi Minh's thought, morality and lifestyle, overcoming shortcomings in accordance with the spirit of the 4th Central Resolution (13th tenure) and the Movement of Promoting tradition, dedicating talents, and deserving of the title of "Uncle Ho's Soldiers" in the new era. The emulation contents have been directed by the Unit, aiming to successfully implement the key political tasks, effectively and comprehensively improve the weak points; timely motivate and encourage officers and employees to perform their duties at weekends and holidays. At the same time, emphasis has been placed on taking care of and sharing with people in difficult conditions.

Stationed in an area with tourism potential, but people's lives are still in difficult condition, the Unit has actively participated in the emulation movement "the Army joins hands to build new countryside", "the Army joins hands for the poor, leaving no one behind” with many specific and practical activities, such as: helping localities set venues for events, coordinating to maintain political security, social order and safety, participating in activities to protect the environment, keeping clean environment in rural areas and tourist sites, assisting and giving gifts to policy families, families in difficult circumstances, etc. As the result, the Unit has successfully conducted mass mobilisation work, strengthened the armed forces-the people relationship; timely awarded collectives and individuals for successfully completing their tasks, creating motivation to promote the emulation movement, contributing to the successful completion of all assigned tasks.

The above results and experiences are the basis and solid foundation for officers and employees of the Unit to continue to improve the quality of their work, to build a strong and comprehensive "exemplary and typical" unit. This is also an important premise for the "brand value" of the Military Rest and Recuperation Centre No. 16 to spread, becoming a reliable address not only for the troops and their families in the whole Army, but also for compatriots and tourists from all over the country who come to visit and relax at Nui Coc Lake tourist site. As a result, it both performs well the military policy on the troops’ families, and makes contribution to promoting the development of the tourism industry in Thai Nguyen province, in particular, and the whole country, in general.

Col. DINH CONG KIEN, Chief of the Centre