PANO - The General Department of Defence Industry (GDDI) has successfully finished 2010 and is now ready for the first year of its five-year plan (2011-2015), Chief Commissar of GDDI, Major General Le Thanh Binh, revealed at a news conference on January 13^th.

GDDI is entrusted by the Defence Ministry to produce, repair and maintain defence weapons, equipment, vehicles and products as well as carry out research, pilot-production and testing of new weapons and equipment.

Over the past few years, GDDI has been allowed to participate in civil economic activities; in other words, production facilities under GDDI can produce goods for markets or/and participate in several other economic activities in addition to their main missions.

During the year 2010, defence companies and factories under GDDI met a large number of difficulties. The domestic and export markets were not fully recovered from the global financial and economic crisis and the prices of materials and fuels were constantly mounting on the domestic and international markets. These in fact had negative impacts on both defence production and economic activities of GDDI’s producers.

In these very tough situations, leaders and workers of defence businesses and factories became more united and they thought of more ways of cutting down production costs and improving the productivity. At many factories, the leaders on one hand reformed the production management and on the other hand encouraged the youth forces to go ahead in technical creativeness and production improvement. At the same time, production facilities across GDDI effectively echoed the movement to save energy and materials launched by GDDI at the beginning of the year.

During the year, a large number of initiatives, researches and improvements were applied to production at units, which benefited hundreds of billions of Vietnamese dongs in aggregate to GDDI’s units, according to reports.  

Their efforts and creativity brought about fruits. All the units under GDDI reached their yearly defence and economic targets, and particularly, some finished the year with remarkable achievements, with annual total turnover jumping by over 17 per cent and average income of defence workers rose 9 per cent from 2009.

Recognising these efforts and achievements, the State and Defence Ministry awarded the Ho Chi Minh Order to the General Department, Order of Hero of Armed Forces to its subordinate unit and Order of Labour Hero to another, and many other units and individuals were also honoured in 2010.

High ambition in second five-year plan

The year 2011 will mark the first year of its second five-year plan (2011-2015) with a vision toward 2020 approved by the Defence Ministry and Prime Minister. According to leaders of GDDI, the plan contains key directions, strategies and measures for its development in the future.

Under the plan, 2011 and the years to come will see a major improvement in technology and a big change in production management at GDDI’s production facilities. A high ranking officer affirmed that GDDI will focus its investment on technology to basically improve technology and production systems in its core production facilities during the next five years.

He unveiled that GDDI will on one hand mobilise its assets and efforts as well its scientists, experts and workers to upgrade machinery and technology and on the other hand will purchase advanced machines and equipment from other countries in order to meet the high imperatives of the defence forces for modern weapons and equipment. In addition, GDDI will gather in military scientists to conduct researches, pilot-production and testing of new weapons and ammunitions, he added.

The plan also states that units should regularly augment knowledge, ability, expertise and skills for their cadres and workers in order that they could master new technology and machinery and ensure the quality of products. 

Leaders of GDDI at a recent conference agreed that a majority of its production facilities should be modernised by 2015 and the remainder by 2020 and that, starting from 2015, it will be capable of repairing and maintaining most of the contemporary weapons, equipment and vehicles and produce some of special weapons, ammunitions and equipment for military units.