Grasping the Party’s defence-military viewpoints and guidelines, the Party Central Committee’s Office has been devoting efforts to taking measures for enhancing the quality of its defence-military work to contribute to successfully fulfilling the two strategic tasks of building and defending the Homeland in the new situation together with the entire Party, Military and people.

The Party Central Committee’s Office (PCCO) is tasked with advising the Party Central Committee and particularly the Politburo and the Party Central Secretariat (PCS) on organising and operating the Party’s leadership work, and coordinating operations of the Party’s central offices. It is also assigned to give advice on regulations for managing the Party’s finance and public assets, to directly manage finance and property of the Party’s central offices, and to provide logistics support for operations of the Party Central Committee (PCC). Moreover, it acts as a centre providing general information for the Party’s leaders.

Over the years, while successfully fulfilling its central political mission, the PCCO has adopted various measures for raising the quality of its defence-military work in accordance with its function, task, and organisational structure and achieved encouraging results. Notably, the awareness and responsibility of cadres, party members, public servants and employees of the PCCO for the defence-military work have been gradually raised. It has effectively, closely cooperated with the Ministry of National Defence (MND) and relevant offices in advising the PCC, the Politburo and the PCS on directing the defence-military work and the Homeland protection task and executing this work within its affiliates. Its all-level military agencies have been frequently consolidated both qualitatively and quantitatively and they have promoted their role in counselling their party committees and leaders to perform the defence-military work. The self-defence force within the PCCO has been built with proper structure and quantity and high quality and it has played a core role in maintaining political security, social order and safety and cooperation to deal with situations in the areas.

However, there are several cadres, public servants and employees within the PCCO, who have paid insufficient regard to the defence-military task. Most of cadres in charge of the defence-military work hold more than one position, which has led to low task performance. To further improve the quality of the defence-military work to meet the requirements set by the Homeland construction and defence, the PCCO’s Party Committee and leaders and especially the PCCO’s Military Command have focused on implementing several measures as follows.

First, enhancing propagation and education to raise the awareness and responsibility of cadres, party members, public servants, and employees for the defence-military task. This measure serves as a determinant to the quality and effectiveness of the PCCO’s defence-military work. Thus, grounded on the defence-military guidelines and policies by the Party and the State, the PCCO’s Party Committee and leaders have decided to step up the work of propagation and education to render cadres, party members, public servants and employees fully aware of the importance and necessity of performing the defence-military mission in the current period. A focus has been placed on introducing resolutions and directives by the Party, the State, the Government and the MND on the defence work, particularly the 11^th PCC’s Resolution 28-NQ/TW, dated October 25^th 2013, on the Strategy for the Homeland defence in the new situation, the National Defence Law of 2018, and the Government’s Decree 168/2018/NĐ-CP, dated December 28^th 2018, on the defence work within central and local offices and sectors.

Moreover, the PCCO has enhanced the work of providing defence and security education for its staff members, while striving to achieve all targets of defence and security education under the regulations on a yearly basis. To that end, the PCCO’s Military Command has proactively cooperated with competent offices of the MND and military offices of localities (Hanoi, Da Nang, Ho Chi Minh) in closely managing the number of cadres and party members who must attend defence and security education courses to develop education plans for those from the 3^rd and 4^th groups and dispatch those from the 1^st and 2^nd groups to attend the courses held by higher echelons. In the process, the Military Command has cooperated with PCCO’s Personnel Management Department in formulating the education plans scientifically in accordance with the particularities and task of each office and unit so as to ensure that the PCCO’s staff members both attend the training courses and perform their task properly. At the same time, it has directed offices and units to carry out the work of propagation and education on national holidays and in major political events of the Party, the State and the Military, to organise visits to old battlefields and the Military’s units for their staff members, and to conduct propagation relating to defence-military activities on the web portal. Doing so has helped make a positive change in cadres, public servants and employees’ awareness and responsibility for this important task.

Second, raising the quality of giving advice to the Politburo, the PCS and the PCC on the national defence issues in general and the defence-military work in particular. Due attention has been paid to cooperating with the MND and relevant offices in undertaking researches and counselling the Politburo and the PCS to give opinions about the projects on the defence work within ministries and sectors, about the building of the armed forces, and about the development of weapons and technical equipment, with emphasis placed on building the forces which would move forward to modernity and the newly-founded ones as well as in guiding and monitoring central and local offices’ execution of the approved defence-military projects.

To enhance the quality of this work, each cadre and party member of the PCCO have grasped and strictly adhered to the Party’s defence-military viewpoints and guidelines, actively improved their political zeal and professional competence, stayed close to reality, renewed their working style, raised their awareness and responsibility and devoted themselves to their work. Comprehending and observing regulations, mechanisms, and policies by the Party and the State, the PCCO has attached great importance to monitoring, inspecting, and appraising the projects and documents by the Central Military Commission and the MND which would be submitted to the PCC, the Politburo, and the PCS, while cooperating with competent offices both inside and outside the Military in frequently checking and opportunely updating information related to defence-military issues. In response to the hostile forces’ drastic sabotage aimed at “civilising” the Military, separating the Party from the Military and the people, and denying the role of the armed forces, the PCCO has focused on proposing measures, mechanisms, and policies for maintaining and enhancing the Party’s leadership over the Military and the defence-military work, cementing the close-knit bond between the Party and the Military and the people as well as heightening the role of the armed forces and the status of the Military in the Homeland construction and protection. Significance has been attached to keeping a close eye on and inspecting the execution of the guidelines and decisions by the Politburo on adjusting the Military’s organisational structure, building defensive zones, managing and using national defence land, building the militia and self-defence force and the reserve force, implementing the 12^th PCC’s Resolution No.4 on the Party building and its regulations on inspection and supervision within the Military Party Organisation to ensure that the system of party organisations within the Military would be really pure, strong, and capable of leading and directing offices and units to successfully fulfil all assigned missions.

Third, attaching great value to consolidating the commanding system and making the self-defence force strong and capable of playing a core role in performing the defence-military work. The PCCO’s Military Command has been frequently consolidated both quantitatively and qualitatively to meet the requirements for counselling and carrying out the defence-military work. Consideration has been given to promoting the role of seconded officers of the MND and dispatching the PCCO’s cadres in charge of the defence-military work to attend training courses and learn from experiences of military units so that they could improve their defence-military knowledge and capacity and their ability to counsel the development and promulgation of resolutions, directive, programs, plans, and guiding documents on the defence-military work under the Party’s defence-military guidelines and in accordance with the PPCO’s real conditions.

Besides, the PCCO has attached importance to building a comprehensively strong self-defence force and especially making it politically strong and capable of maintaining combat readiness, serving combat, and cooperating with other forces in the areas in protecting offices in all situations. To do so, leaders of the PCCO has directed the Military Command to concentrate on raising the quality of training, combining political education with military training, and sufficiently providing training courses for the self-defence force. A focus has been placed on educating loyalty and pride of members of the people’s armed forces and training the self-defence force to master the existing weapons and supporting tools as well as the projects to cooperate with other forces in the areas in settling defence-security situations and ensuring absolute safety of offices and units. At the end of each training period, all-level military agencies have organised contests to select teams for taking part in contests held by military offices of localities as well as opportunely reward individuals and collectives with good task performance.

Due attention has been paid to providing policies and entitlements for the self-defence force as an important measure. When this force is in a training course or on duty, the PCCO both sufficiently ensures entitlements under the Law on the Militia and Self-Defence Force and gives financial support for their meals. In addition, the PCCO has actively mobilised resources to acquire uniform, equipment and supporting tools for the self-defence force and opportunely encourage members of this force to keep their mind on their work, readily undertake and successfully fulfil all assigned tasks, thereby making great contributions to accomplishing the task of national construction and protection.

Bui Van Thach, PhD

Deputy Head of the PCCO

Head of the PCCO’s Military Command