Reporter (PV):

Colonel Nguyen Viet Dung: Thoroughly grasping the resolutions and conclusions of the Central Executive Committee, the Politburo, and the Secretariat on innovation, reorganization, and streamlining of the apparatus, building a "streamlined-lean-strong-efficient-effective-effective" political system, especially reorganizing administrative units at all levels and building a two-level local government model, the Central Military Commission and the Ministry of National Defense have urgently and resolutely led and directed the implementation of adjustments to the Army's organization to ensure the goal of building a lean, lean, strong Army; revolutionary, disciplined, elite, and modern. In particular, the fundamental task and solution is to supplement and perfect legal documents on military and defense, creating a legal corridor for innovation, reorganization of the apparatus, and ensuring that agencies and units after the reorganization operate effectively and efficiently. This task was assigned by the Minister of National Defense to the Legal Department (now the Legal Department) to preside over and coordinate with agencies and units inside and outside the Army to carry out.

Colonel Nguyen Viet Dung. Photo: DUY DONG

The legal system on military and defense is very large. Through review, there are 11 laws, 38 decrees, 6 decisions of the Prime Minister, 73 circulars of the Minister of National Defense regulating the field of military and defense that need to be amended and supplemented to meet the requirements of arranging and streamlining the apparatus of the political system, arranging and reorganizing administrative units at all levels and implementing the two-level local government model; while the time to carry out this massive amount of work is only calculated in months. In response to that request, based on the provisions of the Law on Promulgation of Legal Documents in 2025, the Legal Department has consulted and proposed to the leaders of the Ministry of National Defense to report to the Government to allow the option of using one law to amend 11 laws on military and defense affairs according to a shortened process (11 laws that need to be amended and supplemented are: Law on National Defense; Law on Officers of the Vietnam People's Army; Law on Professional Soldiers, Workers and Defense Officials; Law on Military Service; Law on Vietnam Border Guard; Law on People's Air Defense; Law on Reserve Forces; Law on Civil Defense; Law on Management and Protection of Defense Works and Military Zones; Law on Militia and Self-Defense Forces; Law on National Defense and Security Education). This is the optimal option to amend the laws as quickly as possible, meeting the urgent requirement of creating a legal basis for the organization and apparatus after the reorganization to operate effectively and efficiently, ensuring compliance with practical requirements.

PV:

Colonel Nguyen Viet Dung: As mentioned above, the entire political system of our country is promoting the "revolution" of organizational innovation with the goal of "streamlining-strength-efficiency-effectiveness-efficiency"; especially the organization of two-level local government, merging provincial and commune-level administrative units, and abolishing the district level. The Central Government has decided to implement from July 1. The new organizational model requires not organizing district-level military command and provincial-level Border Guard command; reorganizing provincial and commune-level military command and adjusting the organization of the Border Guard as well as local military and defense activities to suit the two-level local government organization model. Therefore, it is urgent to amend legal documents on military and defense to create a legal basis for adjusting the organizational structure, rearranging military agencies and units, and timely, unified, effective, and efficient military and defense activities; at the same time, ensuring legal tools to conduct state management activities on military and defense, and a solid legal basis for the Army to carry out the strategic task of building and defending the Fatherland.

PV:

Colonel Nguyen Viet Dung: It can be said that simultaneously amending 11 laws and many decrees, decisions, and circulars regulating the fields of military and defense is a huge challenge for agencies and units assigned to directly conduct research, advise, and develop laws.

Officers of Division 316 (Military Region 2) participated in the online contest to learn about legal knowledge organized by the Department of Legal Affairs of the Ministry of National Defense and the People's Army Newspaper. Photo: DUC THINH

As the leading agency in the legal sector, building laws in the Army, with the function of advising the Minister of National Defense to manage the state by law, in accordance with the law, building and organizing the implementation of laws, the Legal Department has researched and promptly advised the Minister of National Defense to direct and establish a Steering Committee to build a draft Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of 11 laws on military and defense; established a drafting team and divided it into many groups, many teams racing against time, immediately carrying out steps in the process of building laws, decrees, decisions, and circulars according to the motto "running while lining up", carrying out steps in parallel without waiting for each step in sequence, working day and night.

The implementation process has mobilized the full participation of professional and specialized agencies; selected and promoted to the maximum the capacity and strengths of highly qualified officers and employees in law-making, enthusiastic and responsible for their work. Therefore, the draft Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of 11 laws on military and defense ensures quality and progress. Recently, the Minister of National Defense, authorized by the Prime Minister, on behalf of the Government, presented the Draft Law to the National Assembly . According to the program of the 9th Session, the 15th National Assembly will vote to pass the draft law on June 27. Along with that, the Government's decrees, decisions of the Prime Minister, and circulars in the field of military and defense have also been proactively prepared and submitted on time, ensuring quality.

PV:

Colonel Nguyen Viet Dung: Statistics show that at the 9th Session of the 15th National Assembly, the Ministry of National Defense was one of the ministries with the largest number of amended laws submitted to the National Assembly for approval. In the process of drafting the law under urgent conditions, we had the advantage of receiving timely leadership and direction from the head of the Ministry of National Defense; close coordination and collaboration between agencies and units in the Army and functional agencies of the National Assembly, the Government, relevant ministries and branches; especially the sense of responsibility and efforts to fulfill the tasks of the team of officers and employees participating in drafting the law.

However, there were also many difficulties. First, the workload was large, requiring very high quality, while the time was short; second, the experience and level of law-making of the staff were uneven, especially when drafting a law amending 11 laws, so there were times when there was confusion; next, the conditions of equipment and funding to ensure law-making were limited. To overcome these difficulties, we always closely followed the leadership and direction of the head of the Ministry of National Defense, developed plans and solutions that were appropriate to the practical situation; closely coordinated with relevant agencies and units to remove difficulties and obstacles; at the same time, promptly encouraged and motivated the enthusiasm of the staff, so we successfully completed the assigned tasks.

PV:

Colonel Nguyen Viet Dung: After reviewing, the Legal Department has advised the Ministry of National Defense to propose the Government to develop 5 decrees amending 38 decrees, 2 decisions amending 6 decisions of the Prime Minister and 17 circulars amending 73 circulars of the Minister of National Defense on the field of military and defense to meet the requirements of arranging and streamlining the apparatus of the political system, arranging and reorganizing administrative units at all levels and implementing the two-level local government model.

A legal system on military and national defense that is consistent with reality is the basis for building a revolutionary, disciplined, elite, modern army, consolidating national defense, and firmly protecting the Fatherland. Photo: HUNG KHOA

The requirement is that these decrees, decisions and circulars must be developed and issued to ensure they take effect at the same time as the Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of 11 laws on military and defense (July 1, 2025). Therefore, we must work with relevant agencies and units to develop decrees, decisions and circulars in parallel with the development of laws.

PV:

Colonel Nguyen Viet Dung: Implementing the conclusions and directions of the Central Committee on the arrangement and streamlining of the political system's apparatus, the arrangement and reorganization of administrative units at all levels and the implementation of two-level local government from July 1, 2025, the Central Military Commission has developed Project No. 839-DA/QUTW dated April 25, 2025 on continuing to arrange the local military organization to be "lean, compact, and strong" to meet the requirements of tasks in the new situation, with the determination to ensure timeliness and synchronization with the arrangement and reorganization of administrative units at all levels nationwide. Also with the spirit of urgency, "running and lining up at the same time", after drafting legal documents, the head of the Ministry of National Defense directed the sending of draft documents to all military regions, army corps, military branches, units and provinces for study, proactive preparation, and implementation as soon as the law is passed. If there are any amendments, we will only notify the amendments so that the units can implement them promptly, ensuring that by July 1, the two-level local governments, merged localities and corresponding military agencies are implemented synchronously, uniformly, operate smoothly, in accordance with the law and have no legal gaps.

PV:

GLORY

    Source: https://www.qdnd.vn/quoc-phong-an-ninh/xay-dung-quan-doi/chu-dong-than-toc-nhung-dung-luat-hieu-qua-834087