As highly required by the task of building the Army and protecting the Fatherland in the new situation, Thai Nguyen Province has been drastically and synchronously implementing multiple solutions to build strong armed forces that promote their core role in fulfilling national defence and military tasks to be the loyal and reliable political and fighting forces the local Party committees, authorities, and people.

After 75 years of construction, fighting, and development, Thai Nguyen provincial armed forces have constantly grown and achieved multiple feats to make worthy contributions to the cause of national liberation and building and protection of the Fatherland. Thanks to their outstanding achievements, 83 collectives and 17 individuals of the Province have been conferred and posthumously bestowed upon by the State the title of “Hero of the People's Armed Forces” and many other noble awards. In recent years, following the revolutionary tradition of the “Capital of forest wind” - Viet Bac War Zone, the Province's armed forces have focused on building comprehensively strong agencies and units, improving the overall quality and fighting power, actively promoting the key role in fulfilling military and defence work, and effectively participating in prevention and control of natural disasters, fires and explosions, forest fires, and epidemics; search and rescue; hunger eradication and poverty alleviation; construction of new rural areas, etc. to contribute to building a solid all-people national defence and all-people national defence posture in association with the people's security posture, maintaining political stability and social order and safety, and creating a favourable environment for the Province to develop quickly and sustainably.

However, besides the achievements, some cadres and soldiers’ awareness of the local defence and military tasks is still limited. The training quality of some units is not uniform. The work of grasping the situation and handling incidents is still awkward. Meanwhile, the task of protecting the Fatherland in general and that of the Province, in particular, poses increasing requirements. Hostile forces are stepping up their sabotage activities through various sophisticated and cunning tricks. The issues of rural security, network security, natural disasters, epidemics, especially the Covid-19 pandemic, etc. that are complicated and unpredictable will have a significant impact on the local socio-economics, national defence, and security. That situation requires agencies and units of the Province’s armed forces to continue striving, synchronously and comprehensively implementing all aspects of work, and building comprehensively strong and “exemplary and typical” units to fulfill all assigned tasks.

An emulation movement launched by the provincial armed forces

To achieve that goal, first of all, the Provincial Party Committee and Military Command have focused on leading and directing the building of politically and ideologically strong armed forces to be loyal and reliable political and fighting forces of the local Party committees, authorities, and people. Accordingly, the Province continues promoting the implementation of the “Project on the renovation of political education at grassroots units in the new period” and improving the quality and efficiency of ideological management and orientation to build the soldiers’ solid political courage to fulfill all assigned tasks. Agencies and units have paid attention to improving the efficiency of internal political protection, strengthening inspection and supervision towards “expanded supervision and focused inspection”, and promoting the Determination-to -Win emulation movement in association with the Drives of promoting tradition, dedicating talents, and being worthy of the title of “Uncle Ho's Soldiers” in the new period, and learning and following Ho Chi Minh's thoughts, ethics, and style.

Currently, the Provincial Party Committee and Military Command continue closely leading and directing the communication and implementation of Conclusion No.21-KL/TW issued on October 25th, 2021 by the Party Central Executive Committee (the 13th Tenure) on accelerating the building and rectification of the Party and the political system and resolutely preventing, repelling, and strictly handling cadres and Party members who show recession in political thoughts, ethics, and lifestyle, and manifestations of “self-evolution” and “self-transformation” and Resolution No.847-NQ/QUTW issued on December 28th, 2021 by the Central Military Party Commission on “Promoting the quality of “Uncle Ho's army” and resolutely fighting against individualism in the new situation” to create a strong change in every agency, unit, and locality. The Party committees and commanders of agencies, units, and localities continue concretising their views, goals, and solutions to improve the quality of the implementation of resolutions of the 2020-2025 term of Party congresses at all levels to be close to the characteristics and tasks. At the same time, they have speeded up the implementation of Scheme No.07-ĐA/TU issued on July 15th, 2021 by the Provincial Party Committee on improving the quality of grassroots Party organisations and party members in the 2021-2025 period and Directive No.1535-CT/ĐU issued on April 13th, 2018 by the Military Region 1 Standing Party Committee on building “4-good and 3-no” and “3-upholding and 5-preventing” Party cells, building clean and strong Party cells, and improving leadership capacity and combat power to be the leadership nucleus at the grassroots.

At the same time, the Province has focused on leading and directing, the consolidation and building of organisational strong armed forces with reasonable structure and troops and high quality. Thoroughly grasping and implementing the resolutions and directives of the Ministry of National Defence and the Military Region on force organisation and assurance of weapons and technical equipment in the 2021-2025 period, the Provincial Military Command continues reviewing and grasping the situation to actively advise the Provincial Party Committee and the Provincial People's Committee to develop and implement resolutions, directives, plans, and schemes on building the armed forces following local realities in each period. Regarding the standing force, the Province has advocated closely coordinating with functional agencies of the Military Region in formulating plans, sourcing, training, promoting, and assigning cadres at all levels, and reviewed and consolidated the staffing of agencies, units, and localities according to the new payroll schedules with priority given to units on duties of combat readiness or A2, etc. Regarding the militia and self-defence force, the Province has attached importance to leading and directing agencies, units, and localities to implement the Scheme on building the militia and self-defence force of Thai Nguyen Province in the 2021-2025 period, with a vision to 2035, in which, attention has been paid to consolidating and improving the operational capacity of military commands of communes, wards, and townships and agencies and organisations in association with building a contingent of militia and self-defence officials with sufficient quantity and good quality. The plan for expanding the militia and self-defence force in a state of combat readiness has been adjusted with a reasonable scale and number to be suitable to the tasks of each locality and establishment, especially the mobile militia in key areas. It also continues researching and advising on expanding the organisation of the self-defence force in enterprises, especially the private businesses and foreign joint ventures. Regarding the mobilised reserve force, implementing the motto of “Being elite, compact, strong, and always available when needed”, the Province continues directing agencies, units, and localities to review and adjust targets of mobilisation, registration, management, arrangement, training, and inspection of mobilisation readiness as prescribed. To increase the rate of proper military profession and overcome the shortage of B-frame cadres and service and technical reservists, the Provincial Military Command has focused on allocating and assigning recruitment targets for districts, towns, and cities to source reservists, strengthening training on service transformation and upgrading of mobilised reservists, and, at the same time, advising the Province on sourcing, organising the training of reservists using the local budget to strive to train 600 reservists during the term.

Regiment 832 of the Provincial Military Command holding tactical training

Along with that, the Province has paid attention to leading and directing the implementation of breakthroughs in improving the quality of training and combat readiness of the armed forces. Thoroughly grasping the Party's defence and military lines and resolutions and directives of the Central Military Commission, the Ministry of National Defence, on the training work, particularly Conclusion No.60-KL/TW issued on January 18th, 2019 by the Central Military Commission on continuing the implementation of Resolution No.765-NQ/QUTW on improving the quality of training in the 2013 - 2020 period and beyond, the Provincial Party Committee and Military Command have directed the Party committees and commanders of agencies and units to review and supplement targets and measures to the programs and plans for implementing the Resolutions following the actual situation. Importance has been attached to breakthroughs on key contents and points and new issues to be close to the tasks, objects, locations, combat plans, staffing, and equipment of each force as well as the budget capacity of the localities and resolutely correcting the manifestations of losing leadership, fears of difficulties and suffering, and “credit-driven practice” in training.

Implementing the program and plan for local defence and military work for the whole term and the approved plan for organising the Provincial Defence Zone Exercise in 2022, the Provincial Military Command has focused on advising the Provincial Party Committee and Provincial People's Committee on promulgating direction and guiding documents, establishing the Steering Committee for drills, working sub-committees, training grounds and fields, etc. It has also actively updated and applied new contents that are close to the characteristics of combat operations in the local defence area into the drills, including: fighting against airborne landing enemy, suppression of demonstrations and armed riots, and combination of defence area drills with civil defence... to train and improve the overall quality and combat power of the armed forces; strengthened measures to grasp the situation, identify, assess, and accurately forecast the plots and tricks of hostile forces, and promptly report, advise, and propose solutions; maintained the regimes of combat readiness, ensured good communication, and timely supplemented and adjusted combat documents as prescribed; closely coordinated with units of the Ministry of National Defence and Military Region under each combat plan; strictly managed the areas and cyberspace; and effectively prevented intelligence activities of the enemy to ensure the safety of agencies and units and protect the secrets of the State and the Army.

Along with the above contents and solutions, the Province's armed forces have drastically made breakthroughs in regularity construction and discipline management and improving the efficiency of administrative reform; leading the performance of logistics and financial work for regular and unexpected tasks to constantly improve the lives of soldiers; and maintaining adequate logistics and technical reserves for combat readiness as prescribed and improving maneuverability to promptly respond to all situations and fulfill all assigned tasks actively to contribute to building a peaceful, happy, prosperous, and developing Thai Nguyen Province to become a modern industrial economic centre not only of the Northern mountainous midlands but also the Capital Region by 2030.

Senior Colonel NGUYEN VAN DONG, Member of the Provincial Party Committee Standing Commission, Commander of the Provincial Military Command