Communist Review - Talents in general, talents in the military area in particular, are the country’s valuable resources. In the condition of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, the attracting, training and strong use of the talents in the military area are the objective demand and the issue of strategic, urgent significance, with a view to building and effectively using the high-quality human resources in the Army, meeting the military and defence requirements and tasks in the new situation.

In the history of national construction and defence, Vietnam has got a lot of experience in discovering, recruiting and good use of talents, considering the virtuous talents as “the national sap”. In His lifetime, President Ho Chi Minh had paid His great attention to the training of cadres and good use of talents. He pointed out: “The Party has to foster and educate cadres like a garderner who has to cultivate the precious plants. We must highly regard the talents, cadres and all those who are useful to our common work” (1). In the revolutionary cause of the nation, the Communist Party of Vietnam, the Vietnamese State and the Vietnam People’s Army have always inherited and promoted the experience of our forefathers, paid constant attention and given good care to building and implementing well the attraction, training and good use of talents, regarding it as one of the decisive elements for the success or failure of the revolution, of the cause of building and defending the Fatherland of socialist Vietnam.

In the past few years, thorough grasping of the resolutions, directives and conclusions of the Party and the State on attraction, training and good use of talents, such as the Conclusion No. 86-KL/TW, on January 24, 2014 of the Political Bureau, “On the policy to attract, create the sources of cadres from the outstanding university graduates and young scientific cadres”; the Resolution No. 52-NQ/TW, on September 27, 2019, of the Political Bureau, “On a number of advocacies, policies to be proactive in participoating in the 4^th Industrial Revolution” and so on, the Military Commission of the Party Central Committee and the Defence Ministry have promulgated a lot of resolutions, directives and strategies, put forth the advocacies and solutions to attract, recruit, train and use talents and have made a lot of important results. Those cadres who have been recruited, trained or fostered to improve their military and defence knowledge at the military schools have their high willpower and determination, recording the satisfactory achievements in their study and after graduating from these schools, they have been arranged and used in accordance to their capacities; many of them have made important contributions in all fields, particularly in the military and defence areas. Through their practical work, the majority of them have got the solid political abilities and good revolutionary virtuous qualities; their levels of educational knowledge and sensitive and acute scientific mindset and their abilities of leadership, organization and management, and as a result, they have fulfilled satisfactorily their tasks and contributed their efforts, talent and minds to the building of the Army, to the strengthening of the defence and the protection of the Fatherland of the socialist Vietnam. Apart from the recorded results, the attraction and good use of talents in society to serve the Army have still got a lot of inadequacies, such as the content, solution, form, mechanism and policy of recruiting, training, use and treatment of talents in service of some areas.

The Fourth Industriall Revolution that has developed vigorously on a global scale has made direct and all-sided impacts on all aspects of social life, including the military and defence areas. Especially, the theoretical development of military and defence; the military art; the military science and technology; the military social and humanity science; the application, transfer and renewal of technologies and so on demand the renewal of mindset, the managing, commanding and operational levels in conformity with the new war form, the combat art and the way of fighting suitable to the state-of-the-art weapons and equipmemt in the conditions of high-tech war. This has asked for the higher requirements, demanded for the better preparation, the high-quality human resoruces so as to be able to meet the combat requirements on the cyberspace and the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

To be adaptable to the requirements of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, the Communist Party of Vietnam advocated: “To develop human resources, particularly the high-quality human resources: prioritize the human resources for the leading, managing work and for the key areas on the basis of improving and creating the fundamental, vigorous and comprehensive changes in the educational and training quality in combination with the recruitment, mechanism, use and treatment of the talented people”(2). As for the task of building the Army, the Communist Party of Vietnam determines: To build the revolutionary, regular, elite and gradually modernized people’s army. To the year 2025, to build the fundamentally streamlined, strong army, thus creating the firm premises and to the year 2030, to build the revolutionary, regular, elite and modern army.

Thoroughly grasping and implementing the Party’s advocacies, first of all to carry out well the viewpoint “Humans first, weapons later”; to give priority to building and developing high-quality human resources and consider it as a work of decisive significance. *The attraction, training and good use of talents in the existing military field is the objective inevitability, of strategic and urgent character so as to meet the requirements of building the Army in the context of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Accordingly, it is necessary to concentrate on implementing well some of the key solutions as follows:

Firstly, to enhance the leadership and guidance of the Party committee levels and organizations, the commanders at various levels; improve the awareness of attracting, training and good use of talents in the military area in face of the impact of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

Firmly maintaining and enhancing the Party’s absolute, direct leadership in all aspects of the Army are the invariable principle in the process of building, growing and winning victories of our Army; at the same time, it is the top important solution to lead to the success of attracting, training and good use of talents in the military field. This principle must be correctly aware of and observed seriously. All the Party committee levels, organizations, commanders, political commisars, political instructors of the offices, units, academies and schools in the Army should have the close leadership and guidance, should concentrate to do well the educational work so that officers and men can be deeply aware of the military and defence tasks in face of the strong impacts of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, can clearly see the opportunities and challenges; clearly recognize the requirements of renovation, the improvement of quality in education and training in accordance with the model “The Smart School”, the motto of “the training quality of the school is the possibility of getting ready for combat of the unit” and the responsibility in attracting and improving the quality of recruiting the source of training and use of talents in the military field.

To deploy the serious implementation of the resolutions and instructions of the Party, the State, the Military Commission of the Party Central Committee and the Defence Ministry on education and training (3) so as to build and deploy the implementation of the Strategy of educational and training development in the Army in the 2021 - 2030 stage and the vision to the year 2045; the plan on renewing the training process and program of cadres at various levels in the Army to meet the requirements and tasks in the new situation; the plan on building the contingent of teachers, cadres of educational management to meet the requirements of the comprehensive, fundamental renovation of the educational and training work in the Army in the 2021 - 2030 stage; to give care to the building of the contingent of teachers and cadres of educational management to reach the provided standards. To implement satisfactorily the fostering and training work of the contigent of scientists through the realities. To have the policy on attracting and good use of talents to work in the Army so as to meet the requirements and tasks.    

Secondly, to implement well the military recruitment, training and fostering of cadres to meet the requirements of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

The recruitment of military students should attract the majority of objects inside and outside the Army who have sufficient conditions and standards, particularly the students with good and remarkable academic records, the students winning top awards in the good student examinations at the provincial, national and international levels, all the talented students with aptitude. All the offices and units should study and grasp firmly the instructions and circulars giving guidance in the military recruitment of the Defence Ministry; implement in a unified and synchronous way all the links and steps in the military recruitment; to be proactive in building the plans, in organizing the source creation and in checking and approving the military students in accordance with the process, conditions and criteria. To bring into full play the synergy of the levels, sectors and localities in the propaganda work so that many students, young people, non-commisioned officers and soldiers can understand clearly the careers and professions and the future life when they join the military recruitment, resulting in attracting a lot of objects to sit for the examinations in the militaryschools. To this end, the sectors, levels and localities should pay their great attention to the recruitment of military students; should create environment and conditions of registration and organization of favourable and strict recruitment; to ensure well the material basis and healthy and scientific military pedagogical environment so that the graduates are able to match with the training goals and demands. Through this, to build and consolidate their confidence in development future when they select their participation in the military recruitment and their long services in the Army.

The strategic staff office of the Defence Ministry should keep constant watch over realities, be proactive in study, in giving advice and proposals to the Military Commission and the Defence Ministry concerning the advocacies and orientations in the recruitment and training of talents for the Army; build the input and output standards for the training objects; do well the planning work, build the plan on source creation for the training of cadres and technicians at home and abroad. To ensure enough quantity, criteria and standards, particularly the standards in foreign languages and scientific study in recruitment of post-graduate input. As for the cadres who are selected for the training in accordance with their titles or to their educational levels, the units should implement correctly the instruction and guidance of the Military Commission and the Defence Ministry concerning the objects, goals and requirements of training so as to build and improve the quality of the contingent of cadres, particularly the cadres in charge in different levels in the Army.

Thirdly, to have mechanism and policy on the treatment and good working environment to attract and use talents in the military area so as to meet the requirements of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

Labour in the Army is a special labour; the activities of the soldiers have often happened in the difficult, hard, dangerous environment, even they have to sacrifice their lives while carrying out their tasks. The Fourth Industrial Revolution has asked for new, higher requirements for the training work to use the new, modern weapons and technical equipment. The high tech combat demands the soldiers to have much better health, knowledge and capacities; so if the working environment and treatment policy are not good enough, it will be difficult to attract the talented people to study, work and contribute in the army.  Therefore, it is necessary to build a favourable working environment, to arrange and use the right people, the right job and have the reasonable, satisfied treatment policy so as to attract the talents to have their long services in the Army. The functional agencies should study, give advice and report the Defence Ministry, propose to the Party and the State to issue synchronously the mechanism and policy on recruitment, training, use, treatment and special mechanisms for the talents. To build the specific conditions and criteria and follow, manage the talents in the military area in a scientific way, so as to be worthy with their contributions and to be in conformity with the development of the construction and defence of the Fatherland in the new revolutionary stage.

Fourthly, to improve the quality of education and training, to closely combine the training with the good use of the talents so as to meet the requirements of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

The improvement of the educational and training quality, the close combination of training to the good use of talents are of great importance, in which it needs the mechanism and effective implementation of the arrangement and use of talents after their training and it is considered as an important, indispensable link in attracting, training and use of talents in the military area. To this end, it is necessary to concentrate on building some academies and schools with enough conditions to become the key schools of the country and of the Army in accordance with the model “The smart school getting access to the Fourth Industrial Revolution”. To constantly update the training progam of the country and the region and deploy the training of some high-quality, key and in-depth special sectors; to enhance the international cooperation in education and training. The improvement of the quality in talent training in the military area depends on a lot of elements, in which the education of morality, the building of abilities and the impart of knowledge and experience, the fostering of capacities and the training of skills in the military schools, the improvement of scientific researches are of decisive significance. Accordingly, apart from investment, updating the material basis, equipment and teaching and learning facilities, the military school should pay attention to building and standardizing the contingent of teachers and lecturers, the important point of which is to raise the proportion of the post-graduate teachers with the State’s standards. At the same time, to continue to build and perfect the mechanism to implement effectively the arrangement and use of the post-training cadres; to combine the training with the arrangement and use of cadres, creating the best possible conditions for the cadres to make their dedication to the tasks and have their development in the right direction; to promote and appoint the cadres with real talents, particularly the young, well-qualified talents.

Fifthly, to combine closely between training and fostering with study and application of military science to realities.

The Fourth Industrial Revolution has demanded that the training and fostering work should be closely associated with the study and development of military science in order to build a contingent of Army cadres with high level, meeting the requirements and tasks in the new conditions. The characteristics of the Fourth Industrial Revolution is to shorten the time distance between study and application; therefore, this combination will help promote to the best the capacities of the contingent of cadres in carrying out their tasks of bjilding and defending the Fatherland. The content of the theoretical study in the military art, in the social and humanity science should be focused on the characterisitcs of the high-tech war; the mode of conducting the people’s war to respond to the new forms of aggressive war; the forms and methods of leadership, command and operation in combat; on the building of the Army, strengthen the national defence and the protection of the Fatherland in the new situation. To intensify the review of realities, the theoretical study, the addition and develppment to perfect the theoretical mindset in military and defence, to build the Army in the condition of globalization, international integration and the Fourth Industrial Revolution. To study, propose, promulgate and implement effectively the Plan on Building the Modern Peoplde’s Army in the new stage. To pay attention to he theoretical st udy in  organization and construction of the combat forces, particularly the structure, the organization of the units that are suitable to the country’s conditions and the new weapons and facilities for the forces. To study so as to be able to master the modern science and technology, to get access to the advanced scientific and technological levels of the countries in the region as well as in the world. To renew and improve the educational and training quality in accordance with the mode that all the scientific products should be applied immediately to the combat realities and to the combat readiness./.

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(1) Ho Chi Minh, Complete works, the Truth National Political Publishing House, Hanoi 2011, tomb 5, p. 313

(2) The documents of the 13^th National Party Congress, the Truth National Political Publishing House, Hanoi, 2021, tomb I, p. 54

(3) The main important point is: The Conclusion No. 51-KL/TW, on May 30, 2019, of the Secretariat, “On the continuity of implementing the Resolution of the 8^th Plenum, 11^th tenure, on the fundamental and comprehensive renovation of education and training to respond to the requirements of industrialization and modernization in the conditons of the socialist-oriented market economy and international integration”; the Resolution No. 26-NQ/TW, on May 19, 2018, of the 7^th Plenum, 12^th tenure, “On the concentration on building the contingent of cadres at all levels, particularly the strategic level, with all necessary qualities, abilities and prestiges, to be on a par with their tasks”; the Conclusion No. 86-KL/TW, on January 24, 2014, of the Political Bureau, “On the policy to attract and create the sources of cadres from the outstanding university graduates and young scientific cadres”; the Resolution No. 109-NQ/QUTW, on February 11, 2019, of the Military Commission of the Party Central Committee, “On building the contingent of cadres in the Army, particularly the campaign and strategic levels, responding to the requirements and tasks in the new situation”; the Resolution No. 52-NQ/TW, on Sepember 27, 2019, of the Political Bureau, “On a number of advocacies and policies to be proactive in participating in the Fourth Industrial Revolution”; the Instruction NP. 16/CT-TTg, on May 4, 2017, of the Prime Minister, “On the strengthening of abilities of getting access to the Fourth Industrial Revolution”; the Decision No. 2289/QĐ-TTg, on December 31, 2020, of the Prime Minister, “The Promulgation of the National Strategy on the Fourth Industrial Revolution to the year 2030”.

This article was published in the Communist Review No. 981 (January 2022)