Located in the Southwest of Hanoi Capital, My Duc District is a semi-mountainous area, with a system of magnificent limestone mountains and caves, especially the famous Perfume Pagoda landscape that has both historical and cultural value for tourist development and great value in terms of military and national defence. Promoting the potential and strengths of the locality, in recent years, the District has seen quite comprehensive developments manifested in the average economic growth rate of 9.2%/year, the improved appearance of urban and rural areas with upgradation in infrastructure, significant changes in cultural and social fields, and remarkable improvement in people's lives. However, the situation of rural security and religious security in the area still contains many complications, significantly impacting political security, social order, safety, and socio-economic development as well as local military and defence tasks.

Fully aware of the situation, the District Military Command has actively advised the District Party Committee, People's Council, and People's Committee to focus on leading and directing the good implementation of local military and defence work, resulting in some positive results. First of all, the District proactively builds and promulgates a synchronous system of documents on leading and directing military and defence work in accordance with the actual situation of the locality. This serves as an important basis and premise for the District to strengthen national defence and protect the Fatherland; defeat the subversive plots and tactics of hostile forces; maintain political security, order and social safety, create a favourable environment for economic, cultural and social development; improve people's lives, and build an increasingly prosperous and beautiful locality.

My Duc Military Command conducts defensive area exercise in 2022

To achieve that result, the District Military Command strengthens advisory work for the District’s Party Committee and authority to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of leadership and direction in the implementation of military and defence tasks. Deeply grasping the Party's military and defence viewpoints and guidelines and the resolutions and directives of higher echelons, particularly the directions and guidances of the Hanoi Capital Command, the District Military Command proactively coordinates with functional agencies to advise the District Party Committee, People's Council, and People's Committee to review and promulgate resolutions, directives, and plans to strengthen the leadership of the Party committees, direction and administration of governments at all levels for military and defence tasks. Importance is attached to advising on measures to remediate difficulties and promote socio-economic development associated with strengthening national defence and security. Effectively implement the National Defence Arrangement Plan associated with socio-economic development in the period 2021 - 2025, focusing on developing tourism, agriculture and industry, improving people's lives and enhancing the economic potential, ensuring on-site logistics and technical reserves for defence and security situations. In addition, the District Military Command also actively advises and applies appropriate and flexible mechanisms and policies to attract investment in building, upgrading and renovating dual-use projects in the fields of: transportation, healthcare, culture, tourism, post and telecommunications,... to both serve the task of socio-economic development and build a solid defence posture in the area.

With the motto of economic development as a key task, but not disregarding defence and security tasks, the District Military Command has closely coordinated with functional departments and branches to appraise and advise the District People's Committee on approving projects in the area, meeting the requirements of both economic and defence tasks. In order for military and defence work to be carried out synchronously and effectively, the District Military Command proactively advises, guides, and directs the consolidation and improvement of operational efficiency of the Military Service Council at all levels, the National Defence and Security Education Council; steering committees: defence area, people's air defence, civil defence;... at the same time, promote planning and gradually complete the construction of military posture components in the defence area, contributing to building an increasingly solid District defence area, meeting the requirements and tasks of protecting the area both in the immediate and long term.

In order to unify awareness and action and successfully carry out military and national defence tasks, the District focuses on improving the quality of education and fostering defence and security knowledge for targeted subjects. As the standing office of the National Defence and Security Education Council, annually, the District Military Command advises the Council to actively innovate methods and improve operational efficiency. In order to make this work more and more solid and practical, along with conducting education and training in the area, the District Military Command also coordinates closely with departments, branches, unions, and media agencies to promote propaganda and education with innovative and  diversified contents and forms. As a result, the awareness and responsibility of cadres, party members and people for the tasks of national defence, security and Fatherland protection are constantly enhanced, making an important contribution to building the all-people’s national defence, the all-people national defence posture associated with the people's security posture, and a solid "people's heart and mind posture", maintaining rural security stability, social order and safety at the very grassroots level.

Building strong local armed forces with high overall quality and combat power is an important factor that determines the level of performance of the military and defence tasks of the District. With that perception, the District Military Command both advises, consolidates and adjusts its forces to ensure a reasonable structure and balance between components with a focus on building a "lean, compact, and strong" permanent force with high overall quality and combat power. In particular, training and combat readiness are paid with much attention. Every year, the District conducts training seriously, and successfully completes the content and programmes as planned. Its agencies and units strictly maintain the combat readiness regime, promptly adjust and supplement the system of combat documents, arrange force adjustments and conduct training and drills in a serious manner. In 2022, the District successfully completed the district-level defence area exercise which was highly appreciated by the superiors.

The reserve force of the District is built according to the motto "strong and highly skilled", especially the political quality and combat level. The District Military Command conducts registration, monitoring, review, supplementation, management, inspection, and review of reserve military resources and means of the local economy in order to mobilise for defence tasks when ordered. In the building of the militia and self-defence force, the District focuses on effectively implementing the Plan "On the organisation, training, operation and policies for the militia and self-defence force of My Duc District in the 2021 - 2025 period", aiming to make it strong, widespread, and ready to handle defence and security situations effectively right from the grassroots. To date, 100% of the villages, residential clusters, agencies and entities have built their own militia and self-defence forces, accounting for 1.3% of the total population of the District.

In addition to the above contents, the District Military Command focuses on advising and effectively implementing the recruitment and calling of citizens for military service in a serious, transparent and legal manner. In particular, importance is attached to improving the quality of military recruitment plans and guiding documents, serving as a legal basis for communes and towns to implement. Besides, it also holds training and refresher courses on the policies, viewpoints, principles, mottos, and process of recruitment; issues new contents, regulations, and measures to overcome the shortcomings and limitations of the previous year. At the same time, it promotes propaganda to raise citizens' awareness and responsibility for implementing the Law on Military Service. Thanks to those measures, the District always completes 100% of the assigned targets of military recruitment. The new service members are well qualified in terms of health and political quality which is credited as one of the top localities in military recruitment by the Hanoi Capital Command.

The above results and experiences provide a solid foundation for the armed forces of My Duc district to continue to perform its military and defence work well in the coming time, contributing to the Party, government and people of the District to make it stable in politics, rich in economics, culture, and society, and strong in defence and security.

Senior Lieutenant Colonel BUI VAN HOC, Member of the Standing Committee of the District Party Committee, Commander of the District Military Command