Son Duong is a mountainous district located in the South of Tuyen Quang province - where all elements of clement weather, favourable terrain, and concord among people converge. It is an area chosen by the Central Party and Uncle Ho as a revolutionary base during the resistance war against French colonialism. This is also an area of rich potential, strengths, and revolutionary traditions; therefore, it has an important position in terms of economy, culture, society, and national defence and security, especially in consolidating and strengthening the all-people’s national defence and protecting the Fatherland in the new situation. Being fully aware of this vital role, over the years, in line with bringing into play economic and social development, the District Party Committee, People's Council, and People's Committee of the District have actively promoted the revolutionary tradition and concentrated on leading and directing the building of a strong all-people’s national defence and all-people’s defence posture associated with a solid people's security posture.

With numerous scientific, synchronous, and appropriate measures, the construction of an all-people national defence of the District has achieved multiple comprehensive results in terms of potential, forces, and posture. Most notably, the awareness and responsibility of the local party committees and authorities at all levels towards the task of building and safeguarding the Fatherland have undergone numerous positive changes; the socio-economy has seen considerable developments, the living standards of ethnic minorities have been gradually improved, the "people's heart and mind posture" has been increasingly consolidated, and people's trust in the party committees and authorities at all levels has been enhanced. The construction of a great national unity bloc and a strong political system has been given priority; education and training in national defence and security knowledge have been renewed and achieved practical results; departments, branches, and organisations have well functioned in advising and organising the construction of defence areas and an all-people national defence; the armed forces of the District have been strengthened across the board, as the core force in performing national defence and military tasks.

Leaders of the district visit the district's armed forces

From the achieved outcomes, the District has drawn some experiences and also effective measures that have been implemented to continue leading and directing the construction of a strong all-people national defence in the forthcoming time.

First, improving the quality of education and propagation work for the task of constructing an all-people national defence. This is a fundamental measure to bring into play the comprehensive strength in building a national defence. Accordingly, the District must concentrate on leading and directing departments, unions, and socio-political organisations, with the core being the Military Command to improve the quality of education and propaganda work so that cadres, party members and people, especially presiding cadres at all levels can recognise the significance, importance and necessity of building an all-people strong national defence in the current period, thereby heightening their awareness and responsibility.

The contents of education and propagation must be comprehensive and easy to remember and understand, with a focus on the resolutions and directives of the Party, the State, the Central Military Commission, the Ministry of National Defence, and Military Region 2 on national defence and military tasks, the task of safeguarding the Fatherland, especially the Resolution of the 8^th Plenum of the Party Central Committee on Strategy to safeguard the Fatherland in the new situation; Resolution No. 28-NQ/TW issued on September 22nd, 2008 by the Politburo on “Continuing to build provinces and central-governed cities into solid defensive areas in the new situation”; Decree No. 21/2019/NĐ-CP issued on February 22nd, 2019 by the Government on defensive areas; and the Resolution of the 21^st District Party Congress. Lessons from existing shortcomings must be promptly drawn through summarising (5 years, 10 years) the implementation of resolutions that have been pointed out by all levels. In addition, it is crucial to promote the education of the heroic struggle tradition of the District to younger generations to foster their love for the country, as well as to enhance their responsibility in building and safeguarding the country. To that end, in addition to education and dissemination through meetings, seminars, and learning sessions, the District must direct the propagation on the mass media of the government and local authorities; there should be a close combination between defence and security education and visits and direct learning at historical relic areas like ATK, thereby raising the awareness, consciousness, and responsibility of cadres, party members, and the people towards the task of constructing and consolidating the national defence and safeguarding the Fatherland.

Second, concentrating on socio-economic development to lay a foundation for the building of a solid all-people national defence. Recognising the potential, advantages of geographical location, and historical values of Son Duong in socio-economic development as well as experience in magnetising investment, the District must direct all levels, branches, and localities to turn potential into resources for socio-economic development. First and foremost, focus should be placed on accelerating administrative reform, perfecting mechanisms and policies, improving the investment and business environment, and creating favourable conditions to mobilise all resources for socio-economic development. In addition, it is necessary to boost the operation and production quality of industrial parks; restructure agricultural and forestry production to improve productivity and product quality to create sustainable linkages and characteristic products; attach importance to planning raw-material areas for production. The District should also encourage domestic and foreign investors to implement projects on service and eco-tourism development.

On the foundation of economic development, the District promotes the building of national defence and security capability, especially the mobilisation of resources for implementing military and national defence tasks; building infrastructure works (transportation, health and telecommunications, etc.) with dual-use characteristics associated with the defensive posture of the defensive area to create a close combination between economy and national defence and security and vice versa throughout the area. In the past five years, despite numerous difficulties, the District’s economy has remained well-grown, social fields have undergone many positive changes, and people’s lives have gradually improved, which creates a synergy to build a strong national defence.

Third, building all-powerful armed forces and bringing into play the core role in the building of an all-people national defence. Being fully aware of the crucial role of armed forces as the backbone of the all-people national defence, the District directs the building of politically, ideologically, organisationally, and ethically strong armed force, which is truly a political and faithful fighting force of the local party committees, authorities, and people. Accordingly, in line with strengthening regular forces in accordance with the "lean, compact, and strong" organisation and structure with high overall quality and combat readiness; strong militia with high professional qualifications; widespread reserve forces with sufficient quantity and high quality; and  Public security forces in accordance with regulations, the District must also direct the construction and development of self-defence forces in factories and enterprises. With these forces, the District must concentrate on training and improving military level, enhancing the ability to handle situations related to national defence and security, disaster prevention, search and rescue, etc.; simultaneously, the District must emphasise the development of party members. Additionally, the District must place great importance on strengthening the military units at the commune level, enhancing political training and knowledge of national defence and security for this force to ensure the criteria of party members and members of the people's committees at the same level; and developing sources from demobilised soldiers and ethnic minority groups.

Fourth, building the District into a solid defensive area. On the foundation of the defensive tactical position of the Province and the master planning for socio-economic development, the District must proactively implement synchronous and drastic measures to construct defensive areas. It is necessary to regularly consolidate the effectiveness of the Steering Committee for building defensive areas and the permanent role of military agencies. The District must direct the Military Command to coordinate with departments, branches, and mass organisations, especially the Public Security forces and departments such as Finance and Planning, Natural Resources and Environment, Economy, etc. to review and adjust the planning of military constructions; in particular, the focus must be put on researching and adjusting the location of command posts at all levels, logistics bases, technical bases, systems of fortifications, etc. Natural caves that have been renovated must be strictly managed as storage for logistics and technical materials; and the project “Renovating natural caves to serve military and national defence tasks" must be accelerated. Due to the limited budget for investment in national defence and military constructions, the District must mobilise available resources and combine the State and people’s efforts to focus on crucial works with dual-use and “fundamental, continuous, solid, in-depth” characteristics that suit the local features and combat tactics of armed forces. The District must also proactively build and organise training plans and mobilisation plans for forces and vehicles of the national economy to serve national defence and military tasks and readily mobilise and expand when necessary.

The aforementioned measures that have been implemented by Son Duong district’s Party Committee and armed forces are the foundation to construct a solid all-people national defence and all-people national defence posture associated with the People’s security posture, which contributes to the building of a wealthy, beautiful, civilised, and modern District.

NGUYEN THI THANH HUYEN, Member of the Provincial Party Committee, Secretary of the District Party Committee, Chairwoman of the People’s Council of Son Duong district