Imbued with President Ho Chi Minh's teaching that: “Only when the Party is strong, can the revolution succeed”, the Lao Cai Provincial Military Party focuses on making itself clean, strong, and exemplary with enhanced overall leadership capacity and high combat strength as the decisive factors for building the provincial armed forces all-strong, “exemplary and typical”, successfully fulfilling all assigned tasks.

Lao Cai is a border province with a particularly important strategic position in politics, economics, national defence, security, and foreign relations. It is a gateway for trade, connecting Vietnam with Southwest China through the system of international border gates and the Kunming (China) - Lao Cai - Hanoi - Hai Phong - Quang Ninh economic corridor.

The province boasts a natural area of roughly 13,260 km2, a population of over 1.7 million people, including 34 ethnic groups living together in several border, remote and isolated areas. It is prone to natural disasters, epidemics, non-traditional security threats, and subversive activities in cyberspace. This is coupled with the restructuring of local military forces towards lean, efficient, strong, and modern directions, hence the leadership capacity and combat strength of the Provincial Military Party are being ever more challenged.

Announcing the decision on the establishment of Provincial Military Party affiliated organisations in July 2025

Deeply imbued with Ho Chi Minh's thought that: “In order for the Party to be strong, there should be a core ideology which must be understood and followed by all of its member”, the Provincial Military Party identifies that building a politically and ideologically strong Party is a crucial, continuous task with decisive significance for enhancing the leadership capacity and combat strength of Party organisations and the quality of task performance of the Provincial armed forces. Accordingly, the studying and following of Ho Chi Minh's thought, morality, and style has been closely linked to political and ideological education to build strong political fortitude, consolidating conviction, strong will, and a sense of responsibility among cadres and Party members. The Provincial Military Party requires its members to thoroughly implement the spirit of “2 steadfast, 2 strengthen, and 2 preventing” and the motto of “5 firm”; proactively counter against manifestations of ideological, political, moral, and lifestyle degradation, and maintain the Party's ideological ground within the Party Committee and the armed forces of the Province.

Party committees and organisations at all levels have consistently played a leading role, maintaining the principle of democratic centralism and ensuring unified leadership over all operations of the Provincial armed forces. Realising that “Party cells are the foundation of the Party. If they are strong, everything will be fine”, the PMP focuses on building clean and strong Party organisations right from the grassroots level, and implementing the “four-good Party cells” and “four-good grassroots Party organisations” models in a synchronous and effective manner. Party committees and organisations at all levels focus on improving the quality of making and implementing resolutions; strengthening the management, education, and training of their members; seriously maintaining the discipline and regulations of Party operations; and promptly resolving any difficulties and obstacles arise. As a result, the leadership capacity and combat strength of Party organisations are continuously enhanced, ensuring comprehensive and effective leadership over all tasks and activities of agencies and units. On yearly assessments, 95.8% of its Party organisations complete their tasks at successful and excellent levels, contributing to making the PMP clean, strong, and exemplary.

Leader of the Provinical armed forces and local authorities in a check of disaster response

To make their cadres and Party members “truly imbued with revolutionary ethics, truly thrifty, honest, upright, and selfless”, act together with words, and wholeheartedly serve the Fatherland and the People, the PMP regularly briefs and seriously adheres to Regulation No. 144-QĐ/TW, dated 09 May 2024, of the Politburo “On the standards of revolutionary ethics for cadres and Party members in the new period”. These standards are concretised into training criteria tailored to the responsibilities and tasks of each individual. Given the characteristics of the mountainous and border region and the requirements of tasks after organisational restructuring and streamlining, the Party Committee focuses on linking the studying and following of President Ho Chi Minh with Party building, rectification, and the implementation of political tasks. It requires its cadres and Party members to seriously adhere to their commitment with self-cultivation and self-training; closely combines education and training with self-criticism and criticism, emphasising “self-reflection and self-correction”, and integrate construction with prevention of manifestations of ideological, political, moral, and lifestyle degradation, making positive changes in awareness, actions, work ethics, and discipline compliance.

Party committees and organisations have implemented all aspects of personnel work in a coordinated manner, carrying out the “evaluation, training, and use of cadres in a democratic, transparent, impartial, and objective manner”. They have promptly assigned and arranged cadres when adjusting organisational structures and personnel; effectively addressed policies for servicemen and their families; and effectively implemented the breakthrough in enhancing the capacity and exemplary responsibility of cadres and party members throughout the Party organisation. In addition, the Party organisations have focused on developing party members within the militia, reserve forces, and in remote, border areas. During the 2020-2025 term, it admitted 224 party members in the regular forces and 1,850 party members in the militia and reserve forces, exceeding the resolution's target by 2.15%. Annual classifications show that 100% of cadres and Party members have developed suitable qualities, capabilities, and prestige to meet job requirements; 97.6% of Party members successfully and excellently complete their tasks; no cadres or Party members are found with deteriorations in political ideology, morality, or lifestyle, or signs of “self-evolution” or “self-transformation”.

Improving leadership capacity to successfully carry out national defence and military tasks is an important criterion and content in building a clean and strong Party organisation. Based on the thorough understanding and implementation of Resolution No. 1659-NQ/QUTW, dated 20 December 2022, of the Central Military Commission on “Improving the quality of training in the period 2023 - 2030 and beyond”, Party committees and organisations at all levels focus on leading the renewal of thinking, methods, and mechanisms for the implementation of tasks in a scientific and effective manner. The improvement of the quality and combat readiness of the provincial armed forces  is attached with the requirements of building a “lean, efficient, and strong” force, mastering science and technology, digital transformation, and adapting to adjustments in force organisation, management mechanisms, and administration under the two-tiered local government. Simultaneously, it emphasises the leading role of Party organisations in improving the quality of training, combat readiness, regularity building, discipline management, and strategic advice on handling national defence and security situations. Thereby, the leadership capacity and combat strength of Party organisations are enhanced; the overall quality and implementation capability of the provincial armed forces are increasingly improved, contributing to maintaining political stability and firmly protecting national border sovereignty.

Making sound advice for the Provincial authority on policy work

Following President Ho Chi Minh's teachings that: “Maintaining close ties with the People and always listening to their opinions is the foundation of the Party's strength and the key to its success”, the PMP leads the promotion of public relation work to foster the close bond with the People as the source of strength and an important condition for making itself pure, strong, and exemplary. Besides fostering its internal solidarity, and given the province's large ethnic minority groups which account for 57.6% of the population, its cadres and Party members usually stay close to the grassroots, understand the People, respect the People, listen to and respect their opinions, and promptly resolve issues arising from practical situations. At the same time, they actively participate in building the grassroots political system, helping the People with economic development, poverty reduction, disaster prevention and relief, as well as taking care of the lives of People in remote, mountainous, and border areas. These operations have helped spread the qualities of “Uncle Ho's soldiers” in the new era, strengthened the People's trust in the Party committees, local authorities, and armed forces of the province, consolidated the close and inseparable relationship with the People, as well as the great national unity, creating a foundation for building a firm “people's support” in the area.

The achievements gained during the promotion of the studying and following of Ho Chi Minh's thought, morality, and style have made an important contribution to building the Provincial Military Party pure, strong, and exemplary, enhancing the leadership capacity and fighting strength of its Party organisations and the quality of its cadres and Party members; and creating positive changes in the implementation of local defence and military tasks.

Building on these results, the PMP will continue to focus more on the studying and following of Uncle Ho to make it truly a habit, an individual need, and code of action for each Party organisation, cadre, Party member, and the masses in order to make itself all-strong, capable of leading the provincial armed forces to successfully complete all assigned tasks, contributing to building and firmly defending the Fatherland in the new situation.

Senior Colonel NGUYEN DUC CUONG, Political Commissar of the Provincial Military Command