During 75 years of building, fighting, and developing from 18^th October 1947 to 18^th October 2022, Quang Ninh’s provincial armed forces have always stood side by side with the local party committee, authority and people to fight resolutely to liberate their homeland and protect the Fatherland, well promoting their key role in fulfilling military and national defence tasks. As a result, they were awarded the title of Hero of the People’s Armed Forces twice.

Quang Ninh is a mountainous, border and coastal province, which is the gateway to the Northeast of our country. It has a variety of mineral resources, such as coal, white clay, and granite, etc. and thousands of islands in Ha Long Bay and Bai Tu Long Bay, which are favourable for aquaculture and tourism, creating an important status in economy, national defence, security, and foreign affairs. Therefore, in our resistance wars for national liberation and protection, this province was the focal point of different forces where a fierce confrontation between Vietnam and our enemies took place. Before the August Revolution of 1945, the Northern Party Committee led the establishment of the following forces: Quang Yen honorary liberation army team, Bac Ma, Ho Lao, Hai Ninh guerrilla units, etc., and launched hundreds of attacks against Japan and killed enemies in Dong Trieu warzone. It also encouraged Viet Minh grassroots units as well as the spread of revolutionary mass movements, which contributed to the victory of the national General Uprising. After the Revolution, the provincial armed forces and semi-armed forces thrived in localities, mines and organised political and armed struggles to force the Chiang army to withdraw from Hon Gai. To maintain this important area, from May 1947 to October 1947, the system of local military agencies from the province to the communes was fully consolidated; the national defence force, the miners’ self-defence force, and the militia were reorganised, led, and commanded in a unified manner. From that point on, the provincial armed forces have been constantly developing, promoting guerrilla warfare, implementing the “Eastward advance” plan, and participating in the 18^th Road Campaign, etc. to recapture economic facilities from the French colonists, thus freeing the gateway to the North; expanding the people’s air defence network to fight the American imperialists bombing pivotal industrial areas; being the key force of Quang Ninh Special Zone in the protection of the Northern border, etc. During 75 years of building, fighting, and developing, the provincial armed forces have fought more than 6,600 battles, injured and captured more than 27,000 enemies, shot down 200 airplanes, and seized thousands of weapons and equipment of all kinds; encouraging and recruiting thousands of young people to successfully fulfilling all the tasks, building the tradition of “United, creative, indomitable, steadfast, and victorious”.

In recent years, Quang Ninh has become a trailblazer and an economic hub of the North and a major tourist attraction of the country, with an economic growth rate of over 10% for 6 consecutive years, ranking second in the country. There are thousands of domestic and foreign enterprises investing in and building the socio-economic infrastructure; industrial production, construction, services, and tourism of the province thrive, profoundly affecting national defence and security tasks. To meet the requirements and tasks, the provincial armed forces actively advise and assist the local party committees and authorities to lead, direct and well implement national defence and security tasks; preparing forces and means to participate in the prevention and control of natural disasters as well as the Covid-19 pandemic, search and rescue; regularly adjusting forces, posture, building solid defensive areas, etc. to create synergy to maintain political security, social order, and safety, thus creating favourable conditions for the province’s rapid and sustainable socio-economic development.

Commander of the provincial military command encourages militia and self-defence forces participating in the defensive area live-fire exercise in 2021

To promote the revolutionary tradition, in the coming time, the provincial armed forces attach importance to building comprehensively strong agencies and units, especially in terms of politics, ideology and organisation, thus improving their combat strength and capability; actively promoting the core role in performing military and national defence tasks, serving as a foundation for building Quang Ninh province politically stable, economically strong, and solid in terms of national defence and security.

First, military agencies at all levels have well performed their function of advising the party committees and authorities to lead and direct the building of the all-people national defence as well as solid defensive areas. Thoroughly grasping the resolutions and directives of the Party and the State’s laws on military and national defence tasks and higher echelons’ instructions, the Provincial Military Command (PMC) has focused on proposing and advising the province to review the 10-year implementation of the Resolution of the 8^th Central Committee (11^th Tenure) on the Strategy to safeguard the Fatherland in the new situation; reviewing and adjusting action programmes and plans to organise the implementation of the Resolution on leadership of local defence tasks in the 2022-2025 period; issuing directives on annual military and national defence tasks as well as important and irregular tasks; deploying the Project “Defensive area drills for the 2020-2025 term”. To make it highly efficient, the PMV advises and assists the Provincial People’s Committee in directing, consolidating, and improving the quality of the activities of councils and steering committees on the performance of military and national defence tasks; strengthening inspection and examination of departments, branches, and localities in association with directing party committees and authorities at all levels to improve the effectiveness of leadership, direction, and administration of military and national defence tasks.

Besides, actively participating in the appraisal of economic projects to ensure dual uses; formulating policies and measures to combine economy with national defence, such as developing infrastructure and encouraging people to live stably on the border and the island; developing offshore fishing fleets, logistics services to support fishermen in association with the construction of maritime militia, etc., thus ensuring the combination of production with the protection of sovereignty over borders, seas, and islands. Adjusting the planning and speeding up the construction of the local battle bases; constructing the second phase of provincial-level combat bases, logistics-technical bases; building and upgrading the general training ground of the province and 13 localities; embellishing the system of caves and cannon tunnels on the island and coastal localities. Completing the construction and put into operation permanent militia posts in Mong Cai city, Hai Ha district; building a new basic Headquarters and barracks of the Military Command; ensuring the permanent headquarters of the interdisciplinary team for search and rescue on Ha Long Bay, etc.

Second, improving the quality of recruitment of citizens to join the army in association with building strong reserve force and militia. Being well aware of the difficulties in attracting and using human resources for national defence tasks, military agencies at all levels actively advise party committees and authorities at the same echelons to lead, direct, and promote the synergy of the political system, focusing on synchronous and united implementation of the recruitment stages. Importance is attached to education and propaganda of the obligations and rights of citizens in the protection of the Fatherland; strictly managing human resources and cases of exemption and suspension; giving gifts and passbooks, fostering Party development resources before enlistment; coordinating with businesses to consult, sign commitments on vocational training and job creation to encourage young people to join the army. As a result, nearly 100% discharged soldiers returned to work in the province and were added to the reserve force. To promote this result, the PMC steps up reviewing and firmly grasping the quantity and quality of soldiers; organising the training of reserve officers, fostering and supplementing the missing specialisations with the local budget; well managing means of mobilisation and preparing industrial mobilisation plans, etc. to ensure 100% strength, in which the rate of military professionalism reaches 92%. Moreover, the province regularly focuses on the construction of “strong and widespread” militia and self-defence forces by improving the quality of training and activities of the standing militia and maritime militia as well as the maritime self-defence force. Currently, to meet the requirements of protecting and stabilising the area in the new situation, the province has strengthened the management of self-defence forces in industrial parks and foreign-invested enterprises. Organising intermediate-level professional training in basic military for militia and self-defence officers, especially officers of military command boards of communes, wards, and towns to meet the criteria for participation in the local party committees and people’s councils. The PMC continues to advise the province to apply appropriate mechanisms and policies to encourage commune and village militia officers to improve their work quality, thus fulfilling the assigned responsibilities and tasks.

Third, focusing on the implementation of three breakthroughs to build strong armed forces, ready to well fulfil all assigned tasks. Thoroughly grasping and implementing Resolution No. 230-NQ/QUTW issued on 2^nd April 2022 by the Central Military Commission on leading reorganisation of the Vietnam People’s Army in the 2021-2023 period and beyond, the PMC closely coordinates with functional agencies to review and consolidate the organisation of agencies and units under regulations. Priorities are given to units on combat readiness mode and stationed in border lines, seas, and islands, thus meeting the requirements of protecting the sovereignty of borders, seas, and islands in the new situation. At the same time, actively innovating the contents and methods as well as applying information technology in training and drills for the subjects. The skills in handling, response, prevention and control of natural disasters and epidemics, search and rescue, and the mastery of new equipment in solving non-traditional security issues of forces also need to be updated. Enhancing combat readiness training; advising, directing, and implementing 100% of annual drill targets, ensuring safety, especially in defensive area drills at all levels, civil defence drills, super typhoon response, and search and rescue. Besides, the PMC’s Party Committee and Command focus on leading and directing military committees at all levels to develop thematic resolutions on leadership to observe the State’s laws, the military discipline, and to build regularity; promoting the role of officers in charge as well as self-discipline of officers and soldiers in training and discipline observance. Regularly forecasting negative impacts and strictly managing social relationships of officers and soldiers to take effective measures, thus well protecting internal politics. Implementing administrative procedures in the direction of “agencies in charge and individual responsibility”, publicising all procedures on the PMC’s Portal; promoting digital transformation, implementing the project of building “e-government”, “smart city” in agencies and armed forces with reasonable assurance and security.

Along with well fulfilling the above tasks and measures, the provincial armed forces of Quang Ninh continue to strictly implement coordination regulations, actively exchange information, firmly grasp the situation of borders, seas, islands, natural disasters, epidemics, thus avoiding being passive and stunned under no circumstances. Coordinating with branches and localities to well implement education on national defence and security; promoting propaganda on national defence and military tasks; implementing mass mobilisation in association with participating in the construction of new-style rural areas and socio-economic development in borders, seas, and islands; well implementing the policies for military families, etc. to build a strong national defence posture in the locality, meeting the requirements of national construction and defence in the new situation.

Senior Colonel KHUC THANH DU, Member of the Standing Committee of the Provincial Party Committee, Commander of the PMC