Nam Dinh has a coastline of 72 km long, with 13,000 hectares of mangrove forest, thousands of hectares of mudflats connected to four major estuaries. The coastal area of the province consists of 19 communes and towns with nearly 192,000 inhabitants, of which over 46% are Catholic. This is an area with potential for economic development and an important defence direction of the Province and Military Region 3. With the efforts of the Party committees, authorities, people and local armed forces, with the Border Guards being the core, sovereignty, border security, social order and safety in the maritime border areas of the province is basically stable. However, in recent years, illegal fishing activities, marine resource depletion; commercial fraud, fishing tool theft, fishing ground disputes, deforestation; illegal intrusion of foreign vessels into the province’s waters to exploit seafood, etc., are happening with complications. Being aware of such situations, the Party Committee and Command of the Provincial Border Guard have simultaneously implemented a number of solutions to firmly manage and protect its sovereignty and border security. In particular, emphasis has been placed on the building of a strong all people’s border defence.

First of all, the Provincial Border Guards focus on advising the Province to strengthen the leadership of the Party Committees at all levels, the effectiveness of state management over the border work. Thoroughly grasping the Party's and State's resolutions and directives on building, managing and protecting national borders, focusing on Resolution No. 33-NQ/TW, dated September 28, 2018 of the Politburo on National Border Protection Strategy, Directive No. 01/CT-TTg, dated January 9, 2015 of the Prime Minister on Launching the movement of the entire people protecting territorial sovereignty and national border security in the new situation, the Provincial Border Guards advised the Provincial Party Committee to build Action Plan 34-CTr/TU, dated June 6, 2019 to implement Resolution No. 33; Provincial People's Committee to develop Plan No. 05/KH-UBND, dated January 11, 2016 to implement Directive No. 01, Project 603 on enhancing the management and protection of sovereignty, maintaining security and order for production promotion on the sea border area in the period of 2015 - 2019. Emphasis has been placed on raising the awareness and responsibilities of the political system and the entire population on national border sovereignty, security and safety at sea; building a strong and effective political system in the sea border area; building a contingent of grassroots cadres and armed forces with sufficient quality and capability to firmly protect border sovereignty; enhancing investment in economic, cultural and social development, and improving the life of people in the sea border areas. At the same time, it has also linked the building of the entire people's border, the all people's border posture with the construction of the all people's national defence, the all people’s defence posture, the people's security to build firm and strong provincial and coastal defence areas. The Party Committee of the Provincial Border Guards has elaborated Plan No. 59-KH/ĐUBP to implement Action Plan No. 34; thematic resolutions on "Improving management and protection of maritime sovereignty", "Strengthening and improving the efficiency of mass mobilization", "Nam Dinh Border Guards join hands in building new rural areas”, etc; regularly grasped the situation, to give advice to the Provincial Party Committee and People's Committee to lead and direct provincial departments, agencies, branches and localities to actively implement projects on socio-economic development and the construction of coastal defence area; proposed solutions to build armed forces, maritime militia, mobilize the masses to participate in the management and protection of maritime sovereignty and adopt policies to deal with violations of security and sovereignty over maritime areas.

Nam Dinh Border Guards practice search and rescue

Secondly, the Provincial Border Guards promote propaganda and mobilised the masses to participate in maintaining political security, social order and safety in the sea border areas. In order to build a strong sea border area in national defence and security, the Provincial Border Guards cooperates with the authorities and mass organizations at all levels to promote propaganda, education and mobilization of people in coastal communes and towns, pupils, students and fishermen to make them fully aware of the position and importance of the sea and islands in the cause of national construction and defence; the tasks of participating in building and protecting territorial sovereignty and security; Vietnam and international border, sea, island laws; regulations on management, exploitation of resources, and the protection of the marine environment, etc. During the implementation, the Provincial Border Guards and localities have flexibly applied several propaganda measures. Notably, the Provincial Border Guards coordinated with the Department of Information and Communications to exhibit materials on Truong Sa and Hoang Sa Islands and propagate Vietnam's seas and islands; built a photo board template with the theme "Hoang Sa, Truong Sa, the sacred land of the Fatherland" as a propaganda tool for agencies, localities and schools; supplemented knowledge on border work to the defence and security education programs; built a contingent of propagandists in residential areas, associations, unions, etc., in all localities; speeded ​​up the implementation of the entire border day, focusing on raising patronage and twinning activities between inland communes and districts and the border guards and coastal communes and districts. In the period of 2015 - 2020, the Provincial Border Guards directly conducted propagation to 27,200 people; built 60 columns "for the sovereignty of the border and sea security", 31 reports, nearly 1,200 news and propaganda articles on Nam Dinh Television and Newspaper; propagated on the radio system for 140 hours; collaborated with local mass organizations to mobilize more than 2,000 people to register to join the movement of the entire people to participate in protecting territorial sovereignty and national border security; more than 1,800 people to take part in ships, safe boats, lagoons and mooring areas; built many humanitarian works to help poor households in coastal areas to develop their economy and stabilize their life.

Thirdly, the Provincial Border Guards attache importance to building a widespread force to preserve political security, social order and safety, and protect the sea border. There are certain difficulties and complexities in managing and protecting the maritime border. In order to meet the requirements of this task, together with building a strong provincial border guard force in politics, ideology and organization; investing in modern working and combat equipment; building system of watchtowers, posts, stations, etc., and improving living and working conditions for border posts, the Provincial Border Guard has advised the Province and coordinated with localities and military agencies and the police to build the militia and self-defence force, the security teams in villages and hamlets strong and widespread; coordinated with forces to opportunely mobilize vehicles and people to search and rescue, and expel foreign fishing vessels. Recently, these teams have promoted their performance effectively, and actively participated in preserving security and order; regularly exchanged and provided border posts with valuable information about security and safety situations at sea.

Fourthly, the Provincial Border Guards actively participate in building a strong political system, socio-economic development associated with national defence and security in the sea border area. Thoroughly grasping and implementing the directives of the superiors on strengthening border guards for border communes, over the past time, the Border Guard's Party Committee issued a resolution on assigning 100% of the border guard officers and party members to take charge of the households in the maritime border area. At the same time, it directs the Border Guard posts to organize training, foster and improve legal and professional knowledge for managing and protecting the sovereignty and security of sea areas for grassroots cadres of 20 communes and 03 coastal districts every 2 years. Thereby, the Provincial Border Guards has regularly grasped the situation, public opinion; advised and helped the Party Committees and local authorities to promptly and effectively solve the issues relating to rural security, land and religious policies, etc. Complying with the action plan of the Provincial Party Committee for the implementation of Resolution No. 36-NQ/TW, dated October 11, 2018 of the Party Central Committee (12^th tenure) on the Strategy for Sustainable Development of Vietnam's Marine Economy by 2030, with a vision to 2045, the Provincial Border Guard has actively advised the Province to develop economic and social planning and projects associated with the task of ensuring security, order and protection of territorial waters of the province; implement policies to encourage people to invest in the development of fisheries, marine tourism, shipping, economic and social infrastructure development, etc.

Promoting the achieved results, Nam Dinh Border Guards will continue to promote border work, build a border of the entire people, strengthen the entire people's border, and promote the overall strength for firmly defending national maritime sovereignty.

Colonel VU VAN HUNG, Commander of the Provincial Border Guard Command