Located in the central northern region, Nghe An has a 419-km border line neighbouring three Laotian provinces. Its border areas include 27 communes of 6 districts with a population of over 130,000 people, including inhabitants of 7 ethnic minorities; a coast line of 82 km stretching 34 communes of 5 districts and towns with 32,000 inhabitants, including 28,000 Catholic followers. Over the past years, thanks to the investments from the Party, the State, the province and the effort of the party committees and authorities and people in the area, its border areas have witnessed significant progresses, namely: the rather high socio-economic growth rate, the improved people’s living standard, the stable political security and social order, the strengthened defence and security, the safeguarded sovereignty and national border security.

However, the living standard and educational level of a number of people in the area still remain low, and their legal awareness is also limited. Crime situation in the area is complicated with different types, such as: drug-related crime, human trafficking, illegal forest resource exploitation, smuggling, trade fraud, illegal migration, environmental depletion, etc. Besides, the grassroots political system, especially in remote and special areas still has weaknesses; the leading, managerial and operational capability of some party committees and authorities is somewhat limited. Hostile forces, for long, have considered Nghe An, in general, and its border and coastal areas in particular, as focal targets of their subversive actions. Fully aware of this, with their functions and tasks assigned, Nghe An Border Guards have actively counselled, coordinated and implemented effectively the Project on “Strengthening legal dissemination and education for cadres and people in the border and island areas” in the 2014 – 2017 and the 2017 – 2021 periods (hereinafter as the Project) in the border and coastal areas of the province in a bid to improve the awareness and sense of responsibility of the local people in the protection of the country’s border and island’s sovereignty and security.

Thoroughly grasping the directives, plans, and instructions of the upper levels, directly Nghe An Provincial Party Committee and People’s Committee, the Border Guards High Command, on the legal dissemination and education, the Party Committee and Command of the Provincial Border Guards (the Standing Office of the Project’s Steering Committee) have counselled the Provincial People’s Committee on the promulgation of related documents serving the leading and implementation of the Project. Notably, the Steering Committee, Secretary Board, and operational regulations have been established; plans for implementing, checking, reviewing the Project in each period and annually have been built. On this basis, localities, units and agencies will grasp and integrate the work into their leading resolutions; make plans and implement the Project in a synchronous manner throughout the organizations of the political system in order to improve the effectiveness of the work. They have grasped that good implementation of the Project is an important measure to enhance the awareness and actions of people of all strata which will contribute to the building of strong “people’s heart and mind posture”, all people’s border guard posture in combination with the all people’s defence posture and people’s security posture.

In order to successfully accomplish the work, the Provincial Border Guards Command has briefed and trained the skills for legal dissemination and education for key cadres of the province’s departments, sectors and localities, especially those working in the border and coastal areas, units stationing on Mat and Ngu Islands, and border stations and the 2^nd Fleet of the Provincial Border Guards. It has also coordinated with levels, sectors, and forces to implement the Project in grassroots levels in an exact and timely manner. In addition, it has actively studied and proposed to the Provincial People’s Committee on the effective usage of the allocated resources, and provided materials and means of propagation to border and coastal Border Guard stations and communes. The documents are complied and categorized according to topics in Vietnamese and ethnic language (depending on each locality) so that they are short, memorable, feasible, and relevant to each object. At the same time, it has directed border stations and mass mobilizing task groups to coordinate with localities to disseminate the documents issued by the Project’s Steering Committee and the Border Guards; build legal bulletins in Vietnamese and ethnic languages, banners, etc, to disseminate to every village and household.

As a standing office of the Project, the Provincial Border Guards Command has always promoted its membership of the Steering Committee and develop the core forces in border and coastal communes and villages during the implementation of the Project. Each member of the Steering Committee is assigned with specific tasks according to their own functions. They have always operated in accordance with the regulations and stuck to the grassroots level; actively built and developed the core forces; coordinated and upheld the synergy of forces and organizations; proactively checked, supervised, reviewed to discover and multiply exemplary models and overcome the shortcomings so that the Project is implemented effectively. The renewal of contents and modes of legal dissemination and education has also been paid due attention to. Accordingly, fundamental laws have been focused on, such as: The Constitution (2013), Land Law (adjusted in 2013), Law on National Borders, Law of the Sea of Vietnam, Law on drug prevention and fight, Law on Human trafficking prevention and combat, Law on Complaints, Law on Denunciations, Law on Marriage and Family, Law on Referendum. Moreover, it has also clarified the Sino-Vietnamese Boundary Delimitation Agreement in the Gulf of Tonkin, the Sino-Vietnamese Fishery Agreement on the Gulf of Tonkin; the Decree No. 34/2014/ND-CP of the Government detailing a number of articles of the land law; Decree No. 71/2015/ND-CP on the management of activities of persons, vehicles and craft in maritime boundary areas of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, etc. Grassroots cultural and information institutions have been promoted, such as: the stationary and mobile radio systems, oral propagation, leaflets, banners, mobile cinema, “Legal Day”, legal talk, legal assistance (there have been 55 Legal Clubs in the border and coastal areas throughout the province); performance, mobile judgment of some typical cases, etc.

In the coming time, upholding their sense of responsibility, Nghe An Provincial Border Guards will continue to strengthen its advisory role, coordinate and proactively renew the contents and modes for the implementation of the Project in the 2017 – 2021 period, contributing to improving the legal awareness and attitude of cadres and people in the province, particularly in the border and island areas so that they will voluntarily and actively participate in the drives and movements of building new cultural life, maintaining social safety and order and firmly protecting the national border sovereignty and security.

Senior Colonel Le Nhu Cuong, Commissar of the Provincial Border Guards