Promoting the tradition of Uncle Ho's soldiers to build the heroic Soviet homeland

(Baonghean) -During the past term, all levels of the association, cadres and members of the Nghe An Veterans Association have been united, proactive, creative, strived, taken advantage of opportunities, overcome difficulties and challenges, successfully completed the tasks assigned by the Party Committee, and achieved 8/11 targets set by the resolution of the 4th Provincial Veterans Association Congress...

Provincial leaders visit Duc Phong rattan and bamboo production facility for export - Photo: TL

All levels of the association, cadres and members have been exemplary in implementing and coordinating propaganda and mobilizing people to comply with the Party's guidelines and policies, the State's policies and laws, resolutely fighting against wrong viewpoints and ideologies, plots and tricks of hostile forces; promoting their roles and responsibilities, actively participating in propaganda and protection work, contributing thousands of opinions to documents and personnel preparation, making an important contribution to the success of Party Congresses at all levels, the election of the 13th National Assembly and People's Councils at all levels for the 2011-2016 term. With 9,482 war veteran party members elected to Party committees at all levels, including 253 comrades as grassroots Party committee secretaries, equal to 52.8%; 3,458 comrades as Party cell secretaries of blocks, hamlets and villages, equal to 52.8% and 4,704 war veteran party members elected to People's Councils at all levels (equal to 35.28% of the total number of People's Council delegates). Of which, 47.8% of the chairmen of the People's Council and 48.3% of the chairmen of the People's Committees at all levels are war veterans. This shows the trust of the Party and the people in the war veterans of the province. The associations at all levels and their cadres and members are exemplary forces participating in campaigns and revolutionary and social movements. There have been good practices and initially effective models such as in Thanh Chuong, there is a model of coordination between the Commune War Veterans Association and the Pastoral Council of the parishes and hamlets to build "Cultural life" and "Living a good life and good religion" in residential areas from 1 commune to 11 communes; the model of war veterans in drug prevention and control chaired by war veterans has been implemented in many establishments; the model of war veterans coordinating with the police and organizations to destroy drug dens in Huu Van village, Chau Kim commune (Que Phong). With the spirit of "Exemplary war veterans joining hands and wholeheartedly building new rural areas", the War Veterans Association of communes has developed a plan to participate in implementing a number of criteria, encouraging war veterans to "Contribute ideas, contribute labor, contribute land", initially contributing 51,749 working days, 7,134 war veterans donated 269,977m2 of land to build infrastructure. The entire Provincial Association has contributed 38 billion VND to the following funds: "Repaying gratitude", "Fund for the poor", "Fund for encouraging education", supporting people affected by storms and floods..., giving gifts to families of martyrs, war invalids, and meritorious people with an average annual amount of 400-600 million VND.

On the economic front, with the will of "not accepting poverty", the Association of War Veterans at all levels has competed to enrich themselves legitimately and achieved good results. From the loan capital of the Social Policy Bank with a current outstanding debt of nearly 1,009 billion VND, capital contributed by War Veterans to lend to each other 100 billion VND, attracting funding sources of 10.89 billion VND, creating conditions for 54,000 poor War Veteran households to borrow, building 5,947 economic models of all kinds, many models with an annual income of 50 million VND or more. Up to now, there are 2,618 farms, 1,678 service establishments and enterprises, joint stock companies, LLCs owned by War Veterans, producing and trading in many fields, some items have been exported to Southeast Asian countries, Europe... actively contributing to local socio-economic development and charity. The Provincial Association of War Veterans Enterprises was established, creating conditions for war veteran enterprises to compete and enrich themselves legitimately.

With that effort, the poor households were reduced to 3.75% (in 2010, according to the old criteria), the proportion of well-off households increased from 57.16% (in 2008) to 61.53% (in 2011), exceeding the target set by the 4th Provincial Veterans Association Congress 1.5 years earlier; 1,647 new houses were built, jobs were created for 62,040 workers, and conditions were created for 3,500 veterans and their children to work abroad. The lives of veterans have been gradually improved, contributing positively to the socio-economic development of the province.

The Association has focused on political and ideological work, taking care to build political mettle and the qualities of "Uncle Ho's soldiers"; well implementing the "Studying and following the moral example of Ho Chi Minh" to achieve practical results, spreading widely among war veterans and the community.

Delegates visit AC5 rice production model Photo: Nguyen Ngoc

During the term, 37,367 war veterans were admitted to the Association, bringing the total number of members to 161,099, reaching 97%, an increase of 2.3% compared to the beginning of the term; 100% of hamlets, villages, and blocks have established branches. More attention has been paid to building associations in special areas, associations of administrative agencies and public service agencies - State-owned enterprises. The quality of construction and the effectiveness of the association's activities have progressed relatively evenly. Every year, 20/20 war veterans associations in districts, cities, and towns, 65% of grassroots associations, and 64% of branches have excellently completed their tasks, with no weak bases.
Through the summary of the Campaign "Studying and following the moral example of Ho Chi Minh", in only 9 districts, there were 943 collectives, 2,666 cadres and members with outstanding achievements who were commended at all levels. In particular, on the occasion of the 1000th anniversary of Thang Long - Hanoi, the Association advised and coordinated to organize receptions, visits and exchanges with the delegation of Heroic Vietnamese Mothers, generals from 37 provinces and cities in the South, Central and Central Highlands gathered in the beloved homeland of Uncle Ho. The activities of the delegation in Nghe An had profound educational significance and left a good impression in the hearts of delegates and people. With that result, in the past 5 years, the Provincial Veterans Association has been awarded the First Class Labor Medal, 2 times by the Government and 3 times by the Central Association, Provincial People's Committee with the Excellent Emulation Flag and many certificates of merit.

To meet the requirements of the tasks in the period of development and integration of the country and the province, the Association of War Veterans must strive to be higher and more comprehensive with the following main goals and solutions:

Continue to thoroughly grasp and implement the Resolution of the 11th Party Congress, the Resolution of the 17th Provincial Party Congress, the resolutions of the Central Executive Committee, the Politburo and the Resolution of the 5th Congress of the Vietnam Veterans Association (December 2012) to continue promoting the nature and tradition of "Uncle Ho's soldiers", "Loyalty, solidarity, exemplary, innovation" to build the Association at all levels worthy of being a political and social organization, a reliable support for Party committees, authorities at all levels and the people, contributing to building Nghe An into a prosperous province as Uncle Ho wished during his lifetime...

Nguyen Phong Phu (Chairman of the Provincial Veterans Association)