Thoroughly grasping the two strategic tasks of national construction and protection, over the years, the Party Organisation, Authority, and people of Tho Xuan district have drastically adopted various measures for fostering economic development in line with defence and security consolidation and obtained many significant achievements.

Located in the West of Thanh Hoa province, the district of Tho Xuan has many types of terrains, a large area, and high population density. It also possesses famous beauty spots and historical sites as well as an inter-connected system of roads, waterways, and airways favourable for its economic development. Moreover, it holds a position of strategic importance to national defence and security. Grasping and seriously executing the Party’s guidelines on the two strategic tasks of national construction and protection, the District Party Committee and People’s Committee have combined economic development with defence and security consolidation via resolutions, directives and measures in accordance with the district’s particularities.

First of all, the district has focused its leadership on conducting the work of propagation and education to raise the awareness and responsibility of cadres, party members, and locals towards the national construction and defence. On a yearly basis, the district directs its Propaganda and Education Commission to cooperate with the Defence and Security Education Council, all-level party committees and authorities, unions, and armed forces in studying and introducing higher echelons’ resolutions and directives as well as providing defence and security education courses to render its people, cadres, and party members, particularly the key ones fully aware of the goals, content, and measures of the two strategic tasks. The district has directed the all-level authorities, sectors, and forces to formulate plans and programmes for combining socio-economic development with national defence and security, while resolutely fighting against the signs of encouraging economic development at any rate and disregarding national defence and security.

Comrade Le Dinh Hai giving awards to offices and sectors with outstanding achievements in the defence and security task

In addition, the district has kept improving political bases, party committees’ leadership capability, and authorities’ management efficiency in the work of combining socio-economic development with defence and security consolidation. Executing the Resolution 18-NQ/TW by the 12^th Party Central Committee’s 6^th Plenum on “several issues on continuing to rearrange, streamline, and make the political system effective and efficient,” the 12^th Politburo’s Resolution 37-NQ/TW on rearrangement of administrative units at district and communal levels, and directions by the Provincial Party Committee and People’s Committee, the District Party Committee Standing Board and People’s Committee have developed a specialised Resolution on “raising the quality of the political system” and Action Programs for the Resolutions No.18 and No.37 by the Party Central Committee and the Politburo respectively. In this regard, a breakthrough in renewing and improving party organisations’ leadership and combativeness and streamlining the political apparatus has been created. Up to now, the district has basically completed adjustment and supplementation of its offices’ functions and tasks, while reducing the number of its administrative units at commune level from 20 to 9. After the rearrangement, the district has 30 communes and townships under the preset plan. Also, it has well carried out the personnel work for the all-level party congresses in the 2020-2025 tenure. In the process, the district has required its affiliates to observe the work regulations and administrative disciplines, heighten the responsibility of key officials and public servants, and encourage the role of the Fatherland Front, unions, and military offices at all levels. Authorities and offices within the district have been asked to improve their task performance and completely handle letters of complaint and denunciation right at grass-roots level.

In addition to streamlining the political bases and raising all cadres, party members, and people’s awareness, the district has attached importance to directing the execution of socio-economic development programmes in line with the consolidation of national defence and security potential and posture in its master plan and each sector. Implementing the Government’s decision on national defence disposition associated with socio-economic development, the district has actively directed its competent offices to cooperate with military and public security offices in appraising construction plans, completing and making plans for the use of lands and the development of residential areas, urban areas, industrial zones, and transportation system in each year and period relevant to the defensive zone’s posture. At the same time, great value has been attached to closely managing lands and accelerating site clearance for industrial and agricultural development programmes so as to create a favourable condition for investment, economic development, and national defence consolidation.

To accelerate its economic growth rate and make contributions to improving the national defence and security potential and posture, the district has enhanced and developed 3 breakthrough measures and 21 action plans for the Resolution of the 26^th Congress of the District Party Organisation. In this regard, emphasis has been placed on developing dual-use economic sectors as the basis for establishing army rear bases and logistics-technical bases. To do so, the district has actively mobilised resources to speed up execution of the Project on agricultural restructuring, with a focus on fostering large-scale centralised and specialised farming and applying technologies to agriculture in order to attract investments. Moreover, importance has been attached to building and expanding regions for farming trees, fruit trees, and vegetables of great potential and developing centralised animal husbandry to ensure environmental sanitation. The district has frequently adjusted its policy for agricultural development and flexibly taken various measures for its locals and enterprises’ agricultural land accumulation. As a result, in 2019, the district’s food production exceeded the target and reached 126 tons per hectare. In 2020, the district strives to increase its agricultural production value to over 100 million VND per hectare in order to ensure its self-sufficiency in food for national defence-related situations.

With reference to industries, cottage industries, and rural production sectors, the district has directed its affiliates to frequently review and grasp demands for production and business, supplement policies for economic development, provide assistance for traditional handicraft villages and industrial groups, with priority given to the enterprises involved in preliminarily processing and packing produce and the labour-intensive, produce processing, and hi-tech projects, and encourage enterprises to apply new technologies to their production. At the same time, consideration has been given to changing the method of managing and improving markets and developing the chain of supermarkets, stores, and services, particularly for the Lam Son - Sao Vang Industrial Zone and the Tho Xuan Airport. In the process, significance has been attached to building models of production linkage, trademarks, and product origin, and multiplying models of hi-tech production and exemplary cooperatives. Doing so has helped create more employments for locals and ensure resources to build the local armed forces.

Having a lot of historical sites, beauty spots, and traditional festivals, the District Party Committee and People’s Committee have implemented many policies to develop and turn tourism into a key economic sector. To that end, the District People’s Committee has formulated the Plan 64/KH-UBND, dated June 16^th, 2017 to exploit and develop tourism, particularly the Historical Site of Lam Kinh. The district has restored and upgraded historical sites, raised the quality of traditional festivals, developed local specialities, and promoted tourism advertisement, thereby making contributions to stimulating local economic growth, disseminating local history and tradition to tourists and all people, and encouraging national pride.

In addition to developing its key economic sectors, the district has placed emphasis on investing in essential facilities, such as the transportation, communications, and health systems and civilian defensive works so as to serve the people’s life and the national defence task in all situations. Due regard has been paid to improving the all-level authorities’ capacity to manage, operate, and perform the national defence work via specific plans, targets, and solutions and promoting the role of military and public security offices in formulating and supplementing plans to transform the district’s state from peacetime to wartime, completing and practising projects for defensive combat, natural disaster and forest fire control and mitigation, and search and rescue.

 Thanks to drastic, synchronous measures, after 4 years of execution of the Resolution set by the 26^th Congress of the District Party Organisation, the district has made significant, comprehensive progress in all areas. The average economic growth is 15.6% per annum while per capita income is 42.6 million VND per annum. Due attention has been paid to developing culture, education, health, and sports and ensuring social welfare policies. The people’s material and mental life has been improved. The national defence and security force and posture have been consolidated and contributed to maintaining political stability and social order and safety in the district’s area. It should be noted that the district is one of the first localities which have fulfilled the criteria set for a new-style rural area within the province of Thanh Hoa.

To bring into play its recorded achievements and facilitate its development process, the district will continue reviewing, supplementing, and completing the regulations, mechanisms, and documents on national defence and security and well organising defensive zone exercises at all levels, logistics support exercises by its committees and sectors, and search and rescue exercises to improve the all-level party committees and authorities’ leadership and management  capacity and the advisory role performed by the Military and Public Security offices and sectors in the building and operation of the district’s defensive zone, thereby making contributions to fostering economic development and consolidating national defence and security.

Le Dinh Hai, Chairman of the District People’s Committee