The working delegation included Senior Lieutenant General Nguyen Chi Vinh, member of the Party Central Committee, permanent member of the Central Military Commission and Deputy Defense Minister; Senior Lieutenant General Tran Don, member of the Party Central Committee, permanent member of the Central Military Commission; Nguyen Thanh Phong, member of the Party Central Committee, Deputy Secretary of the Ho Chi Minh City Party Committee and Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee; Nguyen Ngoc Dong, Deputy Transport Minister, representatives of defense agencies, military zone 7, the Navy, the Ba Ria-Vung Tau provincial People’s Committee and the Vietnam Maritime Administration.
General Ngo Xuan Lich visiting the Saigon Newport Corporation
An example of defense-economic combination
At the meeting, Rear Admiral Nguyen Dang Nghiem, Director of SNC, briefed the defense minister and other delegates on results of its task implementation over the past years.
The report said SNC has always accomplished its assigned military-defense missions since it was founded 28 years ago. Over the past time, it has also made a good use of its available assets and facilities to do business, which has contributed significantly to the defense budget as well as to the local economy.
Over the past many years, SNC has always taken the lead in container port and logistic services, and become the largest container port in the country and became one of the world’s top 25 largest container seaports.
The company has also earmarked a large amount of profits from its business activities to invest in upgrading its facilities and vehicles, acquiring advanced machinery and technology, to serve its military-defense missions.
SNC has been recognized as a large taxpayer in the country’s economic hub – Ho Chi Minh City, as a generous business in social and charitable activities.
In its vision, SNC strives to become one of the largest defense-economic businesses in the country and a major seaport and logistic services company in the region, in line with the policies of the Party, State and Defense Ministry.
Addressing the meeting, General Lich hailed the fruitful business results achieved by SNC over the past years, saying that the company’s achievements contributed significantly to local socio-economic development and national seaport and logistic services sector. The defense minister considered that SNC’s successes have demonstrated the Party’s sound policy on defense-economic combination in some spheres.
Party’s consistent policy
To combine defense buildup and economic activities and to develop the economy in correlation with defense is a consistent policy of the Party, State, Central Military Commission and Defense Ministry. That some military units do business aims to increase national defense capabilities as well as to contribute to national socio-economic development. By doing business, defense-economic units can consolidate the national defense industry, helping the country gradually be independent from foreign countries on military weapons and equipment, and improve the country’s status in the world via their cooperation with foreign partners.
According to the defense minister, facts from the 70-year history have shown that the military’s participation in production and business has been one of the basic functions and a typical feature of the revolutionary army. Over the past 70 years, the army has won numerous feats of arms in the battlefield and also obtained significant achievements in production and business, contributing to the national economy. In recent years, the army has served as a core force in building major defense-economic combination projects, promoting socio-economic development in disadvantaged localities and eliminating hunger and reducing poverty, particularly in islands, border and mountainous areas, home to ethnic minorities.
So far, the military has built 23 defense-economic zones, which are arranged along the national borderline. These defense-economic zones run by troops have provided cultivation soil and housing for thousands of local households, created jobs with stable incomes for local people, built up modern infrastructural projects, and improved locals’ living conditions.
The Defense Minister tours the corporation's operation center.
Unlike the defense-economic zones, SNC located in the country’s economic hub has its own different functions and missions. General Lich asked the company to continuously bring into play its tradition and success to successfully fulfill its defense-military missions as well as to do business more effectively.
According to the defense minister, the Party, State and Central Military Commission has reaffirmed that one of the functions of the army in peacetime is to actively participate in production and business.
General Lich also said that the Defense Ministry will revise economic plans and projects as well as defense businesses and defense-economic zones in the time to come, with the aim of promoting the efficiency of their production and business activities, contributing more to local socio-economic development, and strengthening the all-people defense posture in localities.
The defense minister also asked SNC and other defense businesses to proactively implement resolutions of the Party and Central Military Commission, policies of the State and Defense Ministry, well function as advisers to local leadership on defense-military affairs and defense-economic combination, strictly observe laws and regulations in doing business and production, and contribute significantly to military development as well as socio-economic development.
Translated by Thu Nguyen