Over the years, Yen Bai province has always grasped the Party’s military-defence guidelines and actively made all-people national defence increasingly solid to contribute to successfully fulfilling the two strategic tasks of national construction and protection.

Yen Bai is located in the Kunming - Lao Cai - Hanoi - Hai Phong - Quang Ninh economic corridor and holds a position of importance to the country’s economy, defence and security. In recent years, the province has made quite comprehensive economic progress, which has added an incentive to industrialise and modernise the Northwest. However, Yen Bai is still a poor province with its slow socio-economic development. The people are confronted with a lot of difficulties in their life. There are many complex developments in political security and social order and safety. Against that backdrop, in addition to fostering socio-economic development, the Provincial Party Committee, People’s Council, and People’s Committee have focused their leadership and direction on performing the defence-security work and building the all-people national defence as a central task.

Commander of the Provincial Military Command inspecting training equipment prior to the training season

First of all, the province has directed its departments, sectors and localities to grasp our Party and State’s resolutions and directives on building the all-people national defence and the posture of all-people national defence associated with the posture of people’s security. Emphasis has been placed on the 11^th Party Central Committee’s Resolution No.8 on “the Strategy for the Homeland defence in the new situation,” the Resolution 28-NQ/TW, dated September 22^nd, 2008 by the 10^th Politburo, the Government’s Decree 21/2019/NĐ-CP, dated February 22^nd, 2019 on defensive zones, the military, national defence, and security strategies, and the strategy for the Homeland protection in cyberspace as well. It has also concretised those documents into resolutions, directives, and projects on the military-defence work and the building of defensive zones in accordance with its characteristics. Grounded on such documents, it has clearly identified all-level party committees and authorities’ method of leading, managing and operating the military-defence work, while assigning specific tasks and responsibilities to sectors and all people in the building of the all-people national defence. As a result, the building of the all-people national defence has been closely directed and comprehensively carried out with the participation of the entire political system and all people, particularly military and public security offices. It should be noted that the province has directed localities to build a pure, strong Party and comprehensively strong political bases and improve state management of national defence as the basis for making the all-people national defence increasingly strong.

Furthermore, the province has enhanced the work of propagation and education within the entire Party Organisation, people, and armed forces about the military-defence and Homeland defence tasks, with importance attached to defence and security education. Over the years, the Provincial Military Command (PMC) has promoted its role as the Standing Agency of the Provincial Defence and Security Education Council in working with departments and sectors to advise the Provincial People’s Committee on executing the Law on Defence and Security Education and renewing defence and security education. It is worth noting that the province has also provided defence and security education for religious dignitaries, village patriarchs, and persons with great prestige and disseminated the knowledge of defence and security via operations of organisations, especially at grass-roots level, thereby making contributions to building an increasingly firm “posture of people’s hearts and minds.”

To mobilise material resources for the building of the all-people national defence, the province has adopted various measures to closely combine socio-economic development with defence-security consolidation. It has proactively included such a combination in departments, sectors, and localities’ development strategies and socio-economic development master plans. It has also frequently reviewed and established industrial zones in accordance with each region and locality’s particularities, while assessing the effectiveness of its industrial zones and clusters to make adjustments. Besides, it has encouraged investments and attracted large-scale, hi-tech, environmentally friendly projects in order to restructure its workforce, especially in the rural area. Due attention has been paid to achieving a breakthrough in socio-economic infrastructure construction and urban development, mobilising and effectively using resources for traffic, information, telecoms, and irrigation infrastructures. In the process, the PMC has promoted its core role in closely appraising and supervising plans and projects for socio-economic development, especially the foreign-invested ones in the areas of utmost importance to defence and security. Up to now, the projects, such as the southern industrial zone, the industrial zones of Minh Quan and Au Lac, the industrial clusters of Bao Hung, Yen The, and Thinh Long, the steel sheet plant of Hoa Sen, the bridges and roads of Bach Lam, Tuan Quan, and Co Phuc, the road connecting the National Highway 32C with the Hanoi - Lao Cai Expressway, and the road connecting the National Highway 32C with the provincial roads of 172 and 173 have facilitated the province’s socio-economic development and defence-security task. Moreover, the province has enhanced new-style countryside construction and built combat villages and clusters of combat villages within its defensive zones, while actively executing the national target programme on education and training, health, labour, and sustainable poverty reduction in order to improve the people’s material and mental life and consolidate their faith in local party committees and authorities.

Making defensive zones and the armed forces strong represents a central part of the building of the all-people national defence’s potential and posture. Implementing resolutions, directives, and guiding documents by higher echelons on this issue, the province has developed and realised the Action Plan for the Resolution 28-NQ/TW, the Plan for the military posture of defensive zones, the Plan on building the army rear, and the Plan on using national defence land. Currently, all-level military offices are advising the province to adjust the Master Plan for national defence disposition associated with socio-economic development towards 2035 in line with the development plan for the Kunming - Lao Cai - Hanoi - Hai Phong - Quang Ninh economic corridor. Over the years, the province has directed its districts and cities to formulate and complete their Master Plan for national defence disposition associated with socio-economic development, their Plan for district-level defensive zone’s military posture, and their Plan for national defence works. Grounded on the approved projects and plans, the PMC has cooperated with departments and sectors in advising the Provincial People’s Committee and localities on mobilising resources to gradually build national defence works. In spite of a lot of difficulties, Yen Bai has spent hundreds of billions of VND on building the defensive zones’ military posture and especially the essential works within combat bases, rear bases, and key defensive areas. Besides, great value has been attached to upgrading, consolidating, and closely managing the existing military works and terrains of tactical value right at grass-roots level.

Executing directives by the Ministry of National Defence and the Military Region 2’s Command on the force organisation, the PMC has always proactively grasped the situation and actively given advice to the Provincial Party Committee and People’s Committee on building the local armed forces with proper structure, great synergy and a high level of combat readiness  and making them capable of successfully fulfilling the combat readiness task and playing a core role in natural disaster prevention and control as well as in search and rescue. On an annual basis, the PMC closely works with the Military Region 2’s competent offices to train, appoint, and use all-level cadres properly and to staff offices and units under the regulations, with priority given to units tasked with training, combat readiness, and A2 mission as well as those stationed in the areas of paramount importance to national defence and security. It has directed offices and units to accelerate the implementation of the “three breakthroughs” and improve their cadres’ comprehensive capacity. Up to now, 95.6% of the province’s standing units and 91.5% of its reserve units have been staffed sufficiently. Members of its militia and self-defence force have made up 2% of its population, 24.1% of them are party members.

Additionally, significance has been attached to building, adjusting, supplementing, and perfecting combat documents, programmes for coordination between Military and Pubic Security offices under the Government’s Decree 03/2019/NĐ-CP, and plans for national defence mobilisation, people’s air defence, natural disaster prevention and control, and search and rescue. Due attention has been paid to practising those documents, programmes, and plans. In the period of 2010-2020, the province has completed all provincial and district-level defensive zone exercises and commune-level combat drills. Doing so has enabled the province to enhance its local forces’ synergy and local party committees and authorities’ capacity to deal with defence-security situations.

Those obtained good results and experiences lay a solid foundation for the Party Organisation, Authority, and people of Yen Bai province to keep making the all-people national defence increasingly strong, successfully fulfilling the goals and targets set by the 19^th Provincial Party Congress Resolution, quickly turning Yen Bai into a wealthy province by 2025 and one of the most developed province in the Northern midland and mountainous region by 2030, and meeting the requirements of national construction and protection in the new situation.

Sr. Col. TRAN CONG UNG, Member of the Provincial Party Committee Standing Board

Commander of the PMC