Ministry of National Defence (Vietnam)


The Ministry of National Defence, alternatively the Ministry of Defence, fully the Ministry of Defence of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, is the governmental ministry of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam that manages, coordinates and supervises military affairs, including all units of the military, paramilitary, and similar agencies in the country. The major office of the Ministry of National Defence is located within the ancient Hanoi Citadel. The ministry is operated in compliance with the Constitution and Laws of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, ideologically under the leadership of the Communist Party of Vietnam and the unified State management of the Vietnamese Government. It runs the People's Army Newspaper and the Military Broadcasting Center together with the Central Military Commission of the Communist Party of Vietnam. Besides press and media agencies, the Ministry of National Defence also owns and administers a number of enterprises, notably the Viettel Military Industry and Telecoms Group besides many core businesses of the Vietnamese defence industry.
WWW bqp.vn/wps/portal/en

Organisation

Command structure

According to the 1992 Constitution of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, the Ministry of National Defence holds the supreme command of the Vietnam People's Army and other paramilitary units. The command organisation of the ministry is composed of the central office, the General Staff, the General Political Department of the People's Army and other general departments.
The General Staff is the commanding and co-ordinating institution of the Vietnam People's Army and other paramilitary units, it is currently directed by the Chief of the General Staff and Deputy Minister of Defence who would be also acting minister during the absence of the minister in office. The General Political Department takes charge of political, moral and other activities in the military forces related to the Communist Party of Vietnam, the Department of Politics also operates the system of military court and procuracy.
The General Political Department is under the leadership activities of the Secretariat and often operations under the directly authority of the Central Military Commission. Other general departments of the ministry are General Department of Logistics and Engineering, General Department of Military Industries and Manufacture and General Department of Military Intelligence. Directly under the ministry are also the Search and Rescue Operations Department and Department of Foreign Relations.
The command structure of the ministry is coordinated by the Central Office which acts at the same time as office of the Central Party Committee of the military forces.
The following is the structure of the central organisation of the Ministry of National Defence:

Components

The Ministry of National Defence is the supreme command of the Vietnam People's Army - VPA which contains several arms and army corps, the Vietnam People's Ground Forces, the Vietnamese People's Navy – VPN, the Vietnamese People's Air Force – Air Defence – VPAF-AD, the Vietnam Border Guard – VBG and the Vietnam Coast Guard – VCG. To organise the military activities and units, the territory of Vietnam is divided into 7 military regions and the Capital High Command which contains the region of Hanoi.
The principal and core military force of Vietnam is the Vietnam People's Army - VPA with a regular force of 450,000 soldiers and officers and the reserve force of about 5 million. The land-based units of the VPA consists of four army corps : 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th; six arms : Artillery, Tank and Armor Warfare, Sappers, Signals, Engineers and Chemical; seven military regions and one command : 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 7th, 9th military regions and the High Command of the Capital City of Hanoi. The border guard, coast guard, air force-air defence and the navy are organised as arms of the VPA, the navy in particular is divided in five naval regions .
Besides, the Ministry of National Defence also manages a system of academies, universities and research institutes with a total number of 43 schools include: 12 academies, 12 universities schools and 11 colleges schools and 08 intermediates levels schools. The principal academy of the ministry if the National Defence Academy, it is the only institution for training strategical officers. The Ministry of National Defence has its own branch of economic organisations which contains the Viettel Mobile, one of the leading mobile network operator in Vietnam.

Budget

The annual budget of the Ministry of National Defence occupies approximately 2% of the GDP of Vietnam. The major portion of the budget is used for maintenance of officers, NCOs, soldiers and their readiness for action. Following are the ministry's budgets of recent years:

Public service units

Academies :
  1. Army Academy
  2. National Defence Academy
  3. Vietnam Military Political Academy
  4. Military Technical Academy – Lê Quý Đôn Technical Academy
  5. Air Force – Air Defence Academy
  6. Border Guard Academy
  7. Military Logistics Academy
  8. Military Science Academy
  9. Military Medical Academy – Lê Hữu Trác Medicine and Pharmacy Academy
  10. Naval Academy
  11. Military Cryptography Technical Academy
  12. Viettel AcademyUniversities schools :
  13. First Army Officer University school – Trần Quốc Tuấn University
  14. Second Army Officer University school – Nguyễn Huệ University
  15. Political Officer University school
  16. Artillery Officer University school
  17. Chemical Defence Officer University school
  18. Special Agent Force Officer University school
  19. Communications Officer University school
  20. Engineer Officer University school – Ngô Quyền University
  21. Tank – Armor Officer University school
  22. Air Force Officer University school
  23. Vinhempich Military Technical Officer University school – Trần Đại Nghĩa University
  24. Military Culture – Arts University schoolColleges schools :
  25. First Military Technical College school
  26. Second Military Technical College school
  27. National Defence Industrial College school
  28. Cryptographic Engineer College school
  29. First Logistics College school
  30. Second Logistics College school
  31. Reconnaissance College school
  32. Naval Technical College school
  33. Air Force - Air Defence Technical College school
  34. Information Technology College school
  35. Technology and Vehicle Technical College schoolIntermediates levels schools :
  36. Engineer Technical Intermediate school
  37. Middle Vietnam Technical Intermediate school
  38. Tank - Armour Technical Intermediate school
  39. Cryptography Technical Intermediate school
  40. Ordinance Technical Intermediate school
  41. First Border Guard Intermediate school
  42. Second Border Guard Intermediate school
  43. Border Guard 24 Intermediate school