Tan Binh District lies in the heart and is a traffic gateway and a bustling, key business area of Ho Chi Minh City. Besides advantages in economic development, notably trade, tourism, and service, Tan Binh also faces issues concerning political security, social order, and safety because of high population density, diversity of social background, high volatility of the population, and complex developments in crime and social evils. In recent years, there have been many key projects of the City implementing in its area, thus giving rise to many problems relating to land clearance, land dispute, long-lasting lawsuits, etc., enabling hostile forces and political opportunists to distort and do damage to the regime. On clearly perceiving situations and deeply grasping guidelines and policies of the Party, the District Party Committee and People’s Committee promote leadership of comprehensive development in both politics, economy, culture, society, national defence, and security. Of note, special importance is attached to enhanced socio-economic development in connection with strengthening of national defence and security. Thus, over the past five years, the economic growth rate of the District has been always high. The economic structure has been shifted in the right direction. The face of district and people’s life have been greatly improved. Potential, force, and defence, security posture have been bolstered. Political security, social order, and safety have been maintained firmly.

These outcomes, first and foremost, are attributed to the District Party Committee’s and People’s Committee’s directions for increased propagation with a view to raising cadres’, party members’, and people’s awareness, determination, and responsibility. Accordingly, party committees, authorities, departments, branches, and unions study and implement synchronously and closely education and propagation at all levels through various, suitable content, forms, and methods. Regarding content of propagation, they focus on the Resolution of the 8th Plenum of the Party Central Committee (11th tenure) on the “Strategy to safeguard the Fatherland in the new situation”, Resolution No. 24-NQ/TW, 7 dated October 2022 of the Politburo (13th tenure) on “Socio-economic development and guarantee of national defence and security in the Southeastern region through 2030 and vision to 2045,” and Resolution No. 31-NQ/TW, 30 dated December 2022 of the Politburo (13th tenure) on the “Development direction and mission of Ho Chi Minh City through 2030 and vision to 2045,” of which attention is paid to clarification of the Party’s perspective and guideline, the necessity for enhancing socio-economic development in line with strengthening of national defence and security, hostile forces’ and opportunists’ plots and ploys to exploit some limitations in combining economic development with strengthening national defence to distort and carry out acts of sabotage. As for the forms and methods for conducting propagation, the District attaches importance to inclusion of education and training through training courses in defence and security education, district-level defensive zone exercises, fight for ward-level defence, and mass media. In recent years, it has provided 74 training courses in defence and security knowledge for over 8,000 cadres, civil servants, public employees, party members, members of the Militia and Self-Defence Force, and religious dignitaries and ministers, fulfilling its assigned target completely. During the implementation process, in addition to strengthening and increased operating effectiveness of the Defence and Security Education Council at all echelons, the District actively directs the study and development of teaching material and reform of education and training content, ensuring closeness to missions and situation in the area; pays attention to expansion of trainees, especially the religious dignitaries and ministers and enterprise owners. Therefore, the corps of cadres, party members, and the masses, the leading cadres in the political system in particular, deeply grasp the necessity, content, and methods to combine economic development with strengthening national defence and security, creating unity of awareness and action and bringing into play the overall power of the political system, levels, branches, economic sectors, and the entire people in execution.  

To ensure close combination right from socio-economic development planning at all levels, branches, and sectors as well as to prevent the idea of abosolutisation and simply pursuing economic interest, the District attaches special importance to leadership of good implementation of Decree No. 164/2018/ND-CP, 21 dated December 2018, of the Government on “Combining national defence and security with socio-economic sector.” Accordingly, the District is consistent with the perspective on resolutely abstaining from developing the economy at all costs and putting the sustainable factor first, striving for ensuring that every step in socio-economic growth and development is a step forward in the strengthening of defence, security potential. To realise this policy, the District seeks to make full use of advantages, especially its position as the trade gateway in the west of the City, the Tan Son Nhat International Airport, and achivements of the City, to make breakthroughs in shifting the economy from extensive development to in-depth, sustainable development. During the implementation process, the District works with functional agencies of the City to proactively attract investment, especially that for major projects, while actively reviewing, appraising, and supervising carefully issues concerning national defence and security. This is to ensure that socio-economic development projects in the area are always associated closely with defence planning, sustainable development, and to create more and more technical material bases for building the District into a robust defensive zone. Based on the urban planning in the locality in connection with the international airport urban model for the Tan Son Nhat airport area, the People’s Committee of Tan Binh District develops the socio-economic recovery and development scenario after having put the COVID-19 pandemic under control in order to develop the economy of Tan Binh District in the right direction laid out by the Resolution of the District Party Congress; cooperates with the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Planning and Architecture, people’s committees of districts of Go Vap, Phu Nhuan, Tan Phu, and 12nd in holding a workshop on “Directions for planning and management of locality-level city in asscociation with the international airport urban model applied to the Tan Son Nhat airport area in Tan Binh District on a trial basis.” On the basis of outcomes of the workshop, the District proposes models of trade-service development in accordance with socio-economic development reality in the area to recover economic development while strengthening national defence and security. The District requests party committees and authorities at all levels to promote state management of national defence and security; successfully implement policies on mobilising resources for economic development; encourage and create favourable conditions for organisations and businesses to invest in economic development in connection with ensuring national defence and security in line with law as well as development projects and plans of the City. It also directs the District Military Command and Public Security to bring into play their core role in advising, instructing, coordinating implementation, managing, and appraising economic development programmes and projects without affecting national defence and security, especially the military posture in the defensive zone; combine strengthening of national defence and security with economic development in a close, harmonious manner; instruct ward-level military agencies to effectively perform their role in advising party committees and authorities at higher and their own levels to adopt synchronous measures to exploit resources to conduct military, defence missions; strictly implement the leadership mechanism for building and operation of the defensive zone; regularly consolidate and improve the operating effectiveness of organisations, especially the Steering Committee on Building Defensive Zone. Given these drastic, synchronous measures, over the past few years, all projects run in the district have been appraised and managed closely and demonstrated their effectiveness in many aspects, which both creates drivers of socio-economic development and bolsters defence, security potential, readily meeting requirements should situations occur.

Additionally, the District focuses on leading good implementation of defence, security missions and firm maintenance of political security, social order, and safety to create a favourable environment for socio-economic development. To achieve effectiveness, the District adopts many synchronous measures to direct the Military Command and Public Security to actively strengthen organisations and forces; formulate and practise combat plans well  to protect political, economic targets; promote cooperation between the two forces according to Decree No. 03/2019/ND-CP, dated 5 September 2019 of the Government on safeguarding national security, ensuring social order and safety, preventing and combating crime, and undertaking defence mission. Following directions of the District Party Committee, the People’s Committee of Tan Binh District has built and brought into play the role of the self-defence force in businesses, the militia, and quarter guards. More importantly, they have taken initiative in predicting situations correctly, discovered and effectively prevented hostile forces’ plots to conduct “peaceful evolution,” incite demonstration, and carry out acts of sabotage without causing flashpoints in terms of political security, social order, and safety, which creates favourable conditions for attracting investers and promoting rapid, sustainable socio-economic development.

The above-mentioned results are the premises on which the Party Committee, authority, people, and armed forces of Tan Binh District continue to tap into and strive for fulfilling the goal of building Tan Binh District in the direction of sustainable development, civilisation, modernity, and sentimental attachment set by the Resolution of the District Party Congress in the 2020 – 2025 period, contributing to successul implementation of the two strategic tasks namely building and protection of the socialist Vietnamese Fatherland in the new situation.   

LE HOANG HA, Secretary of the District Party Committee