Bringing Vietnam Border Law into life

PV:DearComrade, what solutions has the Nghe An Border Guard been implementing to bring the contents of the Vietnam Border Law into life?

Colonel Ho Quyet Thang:The Vietnam Border Law was passed by the 14th National Assembly at the 10th Session and took effect from January 1, 2022. This is a very important legal document, fully institutionalizing the Party's viewpoints and thoughts on protecting the Fatherland; on the tasks of national defense, security, management and protection of the national border. To bring the Vietnam Border Law into life, the Provincial Border Guard Command advised the People's Committee of Nghe An province to issue Plan No. 209/KH-UBND on implementing the Project "Organizing specialized training; propagating and disseminating the Vietnam Border Law and detailed regulations, period 2021 - 2025" in the province.

Colonel Ho Quyet Thang - Deputy Commander and Chief of Staff (Nghe An Border Guard). Photo: Dinh Tuyen

Up to now, the whole province has completed the implementation of the in-depth training conference on the Vietnam Border Law and detailed regulations for officials at all levels from the province to the district (city, town), commune (ward) and is continuing to promote the implementation in the village (hamlet, village).Law dissemination and propaganda workhas focused on diversifying methods and forms in the direction of "easy to understand, easy to remember and easy to implement".

The Provincial Border Guard has also strengthened coordination with agencies, sectors, news agencies and press to promote propaganda and dissemination to bring the Vietnam Border Law into life; combining propaganda through activities of reporters, propagandists, grassroots information systems, electronic information portals; propaganda on leaflets, brochures and on social networking platforms.

Along with propaganda work, the Provincial Border Guard has also actively and proactively coordinated with departments, branches and localities in building, managing and protecting the national border to enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of State management; focused on consolidating the political foundation in the border area, improving the material and spiritual life of the people; improving the effectiveness of border diplomacy, people's diplomacy, international cooperation on border, building a peaceful, friendly, stable, cooperative and developing border.

The Border Guard Station of Cua Lo - Ben Thuy Port presented national flags to fishermen going out to sea, distributed propaganda materials to disseminate legal education to local students; the Border Guard Station of Quynh Phuong disseminated legal education to fishermen; the Women's Squadron 2, the Provincial Border Guard coordinated with local women to disseminate legal education to fishermen. Photo: Le Thach

PV:The border and coastal areas of Nghe An are large, densely populated, and have uneven educational levels. What difficulties do you encounter in the process of disseminating and implementing the Border Law and related detailed regulations in practice, sir?

Colonel Ho Quyet Thang:Nghe An has a land border of 468.281 km long, including 116 landmarks, 44 pairs of border posts, adjacent to 06 districts, 03 provinces of Laos (Sam To, Muong Quan/Hua Phan province; Noong Het, Muong Moc/Xieng Khouang province; Vieng Thoong, Xay Cham Pon/Bolikhamxay province). The land border area of ​​the province includes 6 districts, 27 communes, with 5 main ethnic groups (Kinh, Thai, Mong, Kho Mu, Tho) living with 30,683 households/1,386,316 people; the coastline is 82 km long, the assigned sea area for management is 4,230 square nautical miles wide, the sea border area includes 5 districts and towns, with 34 communes and wards with 76,848 households/329,146 people.

The socio-economic development of border areas is slower than that of inland areas; people's lives have improved but in general there are still many difficulties, especially due to the impact of natural disasters, the Covid-19 pandemic and diseases on livestock and poultry; some backward customs and practices have not been eliminated; awareness, understanding and sense of law compliance of a part of the population are still limited; activities of all kinds of crimes, especially drug crimes, human trafficking, fetal trafficking, illegal immigration and migration across the border... among ethnic minorities occur in some border areas, and are sometimes complicated.

Officers and soldiers of Nghe An Border Guard patrol to protect the border. Photo: Document

At sea, foreign ships have increased their activities violating Vietnam's maritime sovereignty, preventing and chasing away fishermen from fishing and conducting exploration and exploitation activities at sea. Smuggling, trade fraud, illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing; fishing ground disputes, natural disasters and accidents at sea causing great loss of life and property of the State and the People are still taking place.

The area is large, the land border area has a very difficult traffic system, the population is scattered, not concentrated, many villages are isolated, and means of transport cannot reach; the service facilitiespropaganda work, dissemination and legal education of many units and localities are not guaranteed; grassroots cadres and teams of reporters and propagandists in some places have not met the requirements of the task of propaganda, dissemination and legal education... These are the difficulties encountered in the process of implementing propaganda and implementing the Border Law and related detailed regulations to the people.

PV:As a province with a 468.281km long border, bordering the three provinces of Hua Phan, Xieng Khouang, Bo Ly Kham Xay (Laos), it has an important position in politics, economy, culture, society, national defense - security and foreign affairs. So what plans does the Nghe An Border Guard have in coordination work to mobilize people living on both sides of the border to strictly comply with border regulations, comrade?

Colonel Ho Quyet Thang:Over the past years, the Border Guard of Nghe An province has closely coordinated with the functional forces of the three provinces of Hua Phan, Xieng Khouang, and Bo Ly Kham Xay (Laos); actively advised the Party Committees and local authorities in the border areas to coordinate with localities sharing the border with Laos to mobilize people in the border areas to actively participate in protecting the sovereignty and national border territory, building a peaceful, friendly, cooperative border for mutual development.

Mailboxes for reporting illegal immigrants in villages and hamlets; Officers of Tam Hop Border Guard Station and Nam Can International Border Guard Station disseminate the law to the people. Photo: Le Thach

The Nghe An Border Guard Command has regularly directed border posts and stations to strengthen staff work, coordinate with local authorities to organize propaganda, education, and mobilize cadres and people in the border area to strictly comply with two important legal documents on the border: the Agreement on Border Regulations and Land Border Gates of Vietnam - Laos; and the Protocol on Border Lines and Border Markers of Vietnam - Laos.

In addition, the two sides continued to effectively implement cooperation agreements in ensuring security and order on the Vietnam - Laos border between the Border Guard Command (Vietnam Ministry of National Defense) and the General Department of Security, the General Department of Police (Laos Ministry of Security); Plan to coordinate in combating and preventing illegal migration and entry of Vietnamese people to Laos; receiving and returning Vietnamese citizens residing illegally in Lao territory according to the laws of each country and the Agreement on border management regulations and border gates on land between Vietnam and Laos.

In 2022, the Provincial Border Guard Command held a meeting to sign a bilateral memorandum of understanding on coordination in performing tasks of border management, protection and crime prevention with the Military Command and the Police of the three opposite border provinces. Signed a memorandum of understanding on bilateral patrols on the land border between the Border Guard Command of Nghe An province/Vietnam and the Military Commands of the three provinces of Hua Phan, Xieng Khouang, Bo Ly Kham Xay/Laos. Thereby, we have regularly done a good job of coordinating bilateral patrols, exchanging information, promptly informing each other of situations related to territorial sovereignty and border security to organize and coordinate implementation, jointly resolve incidents in a timely manner, effectively combat all types of crimes on both sides of the border, contributing to protecting the safety of the border system, border markers, border posts, maintaining political security, social order and safety in the border areas of both sides.

The Border Guard Command of Nghe An province and the Military Commands of the three provinces of Hua Phan, Xieng Khouang, and Bolikhamxay (Laos) signed a memorandum of understanding at the meeting on border management and protection, crime prevention and control, on July 22, 2022. Photo: Hung Phong

Continue to effectively implement Directive No. 12/CT-UBND dated April 16, 2013 of the People's Committee of Nghe An province on organizing the movement of signing agreements between residential clusters on both sides of the Vietnam - Laos border, maintaining the twinning activities between 21 pairs (villages - villages) on both sides of the border and 8 border posts in the province with 7 Border Guard companies and 1 border police station of the neighboring country.

Through twinning activities, we promote solidarity and help each other in times of difficulty, help each other develop the economy, coordinate to firmly protect sovereignty and territorial integrity, maintain political security and social order and safety on both sides of the border; build a border of peace, friendship, cooperation and mutual development.

PV:Thank you, comrade!

Khanh Ly