Civil defence is part of national defence, being realised by a system of measures to protect citizens, agencies, organisations, and the national economy. As the core force in performing this important task, the entire Vietnam People’s Army (VPA) should carefully study the contents of the Civil Defence Law and proactively give advice on implementing and translating this Law into life.

The Civil Defence Law (hereinafter referred to as the Law for short) was approved by the 15^th National Assembly on 20 June 2023 and took effect as of 1 July 2024. This Law lays an important foundation for strengthening the Party’s leadership and the State’s management towards civil defence work, contributing to building and completing the legal system and corridor for civil defence activities. At the same time, it helps improve relevant agencies’ performance of civil defence work, making contributions to minimising damages caused by catastrophes, natural disasters, and epidemics, meeting the requirements set by the country’s socio-economic development, defence and security, and international integration in the new situation.

Army-wide conference to introduce the Civil Defence Law in 2024 (photo: qdnd.vn)

Right after the issuance of the Law, under the Government’s direction, the Ministry of National Defence (MND) as the Standing Agency of the National Steering Board for Civil Defence has proactively cooperated with other ministries, ministerial-level agencies, and localities in developing documents, projects, and plans on executing the Law, while directing its competent offices to review relevant legal normative and by-law documents, propose amendments, supplementations, replacements, and annulments in accordance with the Law, design and release documents to disseminate the Law, and include the fundamentals of the Law in the VPA’s law education programs. It has encouraged press agencies both inside and outside the Military to further propagate the Law via various forms and methods. Besides, it has directed offices and units across the VPA to hold training courses on the Law. Doing so has helped achieve a strong consensus among all people, especially cadres and soldiers within the armed forces about the implementation of the Law.

Thanks to a firm grasp and active implementation of the Law, when Storm No.3 (aka Yagi) made landfall in our country, under the direction of the Central Military Commission and the MND, the work of leadership, direction, and operation within offices and units across the VPA smoothly functioned; under the “four on-the-spot” motto, forces and means were mobilised in a large number to deal with the consequences of the Storm. That clearly demonstrated the core role of the VPA in performing its “combat mission in peacetime”, asserting the entire VPA’s responsibility for grasping and executing the Law.

However, those mentioned above are just the initial fruits of the entire VPA’s grasp and implementation of the Law. To more effectively execute the Law, offices and units should focus on several basic tasks and measures as follows.

First, enhancing information work to equip forces and citizens with knowledge of civil defence. This is a matter of importance to the process of executing the Law among individuals, organisations, and the entire society in general, the armed forces in particular as information work will help raise forces’ awareness, responsibility, consensus, and determination to perform this important task. To that end, the Department of Search and Rescue Operations should promote its key role in coordinating with relevant agencies to design and issue publications, documents, and training programs for cadres and soldiers across the VPA to grasp the fundamentals of the Law. It should select and integrate main topics about civil defence into defence and security education programs for target individuals, pupils, and students. Moreover, it should work with press agencies both inside and outside the Military to propagate and disseminate the Law via mass media.

Party committees and commands of offices and units should well educate cadres and soldiers on civil defence, rendering them fully aware that it is an important task and the VPA is the core force in the implementation process. At the same time, hostile forces’ exploitation of incidents, natural disasters, epidemics, and catastrophes to create distortions, incite social instability, and cause difficulties in force mobilisation and consequence settlement should be actively, proactively prevented and thwarted by party committees and commands of offices and units across the VPA. Additionally, it is necessary to promote the VPA’s role as an “army ready for work” in encouraging the people to actively take part in civil defence activities, particularly in preventing and responding to incidents, natural disasters, and epidemics.

Second, focusing on completing forces’ organisational structure and mechanisms for civil defence direction, command, and operation. Competent agencies of the VPA’s General Staff should proactively advise the Central Military Commission and the MND on re-organising all-level Steering Boards for Civil Defence in a uniform, synchronous, compact, effective way. At the same time, it is important to continue to review and perfect operating mechanisms and regulations of those boards in accordance with the particularities of civil defence in order to ensure comprehensive direction and clearly delegate duties to offices and units, especially to heads of offices and units in civil defence activities.

Furthermore, it is essential to continue to adjust regulations on coordination between the MND and other ministries and sectors in formulating policies, bringing into play resources, and performing civil defence tasks on a national scale. Emphasis should be placed on Regulations for coordination with the Ministry of Public Security to ensure security and social order and safety, Regulations for coordination with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to prevent and respond to natural disasters, Regulations for coordination with the Ministry of Transport to maintain transport in responding to vessel accidents at sea and civil aviation accidents, Regulations for coordination with the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment and the Ministry of Health to protect the environment and settle incidents, natural disasters, catastrophes, and epidemics. Offices and units across the VPA should continue to design and complete procedures for responding to incidents and catastrophes, such as oil spill, earthquake, tsunami, and weapon of mass destruction.

Third, continuing to perfect legal normative documents, mechanisms, and policies on civil defence. This measure acts as a deciding factor in the quality and effectiveness of executing the Law and civil defence activities. Thus, the Department of Search and Rescue Operations should promote its key role in collaborating with relevant offices and units to make situational assessments and forecasts and then assist the General Staff and the MND in recommending the Government to promulgate a decree detailing several articles of the Law and guiding documents for the implementation of the Law. Besides, it is necessary to review, amend, supplement, and promulgate legal normative documents in accordance with the Law. While state management of civil defence work should be improved, a set of criteria for assessing the capabilities of major, key constructions in preventing catastrophes and wars should be developed.

In order that civil defence activities will be smooth and timely, it is important to give advice to authorities on promulgating legal normative documents on financial management and payment from the state budget for natural disaster response and search and rescue. The MND should continue to cooperate with other ministries, sectors, and localities in reviewing, developing, and issuing policies to encourage social resources for natural disaster management and search and rescue as well as in strengthening inspection and supervision work to opportunely detect and handle drawbacks of mechanisms and policies in this work.

Fourth, building and consolidating specialised forces, improving on-the-spot forces, and extensively developing human resources in civil defence. Adhering to the MND’s Plan to execute the Law in 2023, offices and units across the VPA should concentrate on building specialised forces synchronously, with proper organisational structure, modern equipment, and a contingent of cadres capable of playing a core role in responding to incidents, natural disasters, epidemics, and catastrophes. Emphasis should be placed on developing specialised forces within National Training Centre for Search and Rescue, Centre for Oil Spill Response, and Centre for Toxic Chemical, Radiation, Nuclear Incident Response, promoting the emergency communication system (phone number 112) established within provincial-level military commands to receive information about incidents and catastrophes, and step by step implementing the pilot project on military enterprises’ provision of incident response services (like the Southern Centre for Oil Spill Response).

In addition to the building of “adept, compact, effective” specialised forces, all-level military agencies should advise local party committees and authorities on attaching importance to developing semi-specialised forces on a proper scale as the basis for giving support to the specialised forces in the event. It is necessary to step up the movement on all people’s participation in civil defence, develop vanguard teams at grass-roots level, and promote localities’ self-reliance in flexibly, opportunely settling incidents, natural disasters, epidemics, and catastrophes under the “four on-the-spot” motto. The General Staff should continue to give advice to the Government on promulgating policies to establish organisations in charge of providing support for natural disaster management, training centres, and service providers for civil defence, and develop a pool of volunteers for settling the consequences of incidents, natural disasters, epidemics, and catastrophes.

Fifth, continuing to review and adjust all-level civil defence plans, intensifying training and exercises, improving forces’ performance of this important task. Under the MND’s Plan 4654/KH-BQP on realising the National Civil Defence Strategy towards 2030 and beyond, the Department of Search and Rescue Operations should closely work with competent agencies to complete the MND’s Plan on the use of forces and means in cooperation with other forces in preventing and responding to incidents and catastrophes in the period of 2026 - 2030 and all-level Plans on the use of military forces and means in cooperation with other forces in local areas in preventing and responding to incidents and catastrophes in the period of 2026 - 2030. Grounded on those documents, the Department should issue guiding documents for offices, units, and localities to build their own civil defence plans properly.

Offices and units across the VPA should renew and further improve training and exercises, while holding training courses for their forces on experiences, skills, and procedures of natural disaster management and search and rescue. In this regard, great value should be attached to improving forces’ skills in using modern means for responding to natural disasters and environmental catastrophes and carrying out search and rescue operations. Offices and units should focus on developing training programs and exercises in accordance with the characteristics of possible incidents and natural disasters in each area, closely combining basic and specialised training, and organising refresher courses on civil defence command, direction, coordination, and operation. All-level military agencies should proactively give advice to local party committees and authorities on renewing methods of civil defence training and exercises and aligning civil defence drills with defensive zone exercises in order to well operate mechanisms of leadership, command, and operation and enhance forces’ coordination in the handling of situations. Moreover, it is essential to promote the core role of the VPA in holding training courses on natural disaster management and search and rescue for ministries, sectors, and localities, with a view to improving those organisations’ performance of civil defence tasks from grass-roots to Central level.

In addition to those above-mentioned measures, the whole VPA should foster international cooperation in incident, natural disaster, catastrophe, and epidemic response and search and rescue, enhancing cooperation in training and exercises on search and rescue and humanitarian assistance as well as in information and experience exchange. Consideration should be given to execute the Project on “developing and improving capabilities in incident and natural disaster response and search and rescue towards 2030, with orientation towards 2045”, the Program on improving capabilities in national-level environmental incident prevention and response towards 2030, and other projects and programs aimed at increasing the VPA’s civil defence capabilities. At the same time, the VPA should well carry out preliminary and final reviews to draw lessons and develop theories on civil defence.

As part of national defence, civil defence is of critical importance to our Fatherland construction and protection cause. Hence, party committees and commands of offices and units across the Military should continue to grasp viewpoints, goals, tasks, measures, and action plans relating to the Law in accordance with their function and tasks and the particularities of their stationed areas, meeting the requirements of VPA building and Fatherland protection in the new situation.

Lt. Gen. NGUYEN TRONG BINH

Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the VPA